■<^:^- 


C^'i^d' 


f'     ^K       t--*'*^^' 


V 


THE     CRISIS, 


^^>^t^^t^ 


A    STATEMENT    OF    FACTS 


EXPOSITION    OF    DANGEROUS    ERRORS 


CONTAINED    IN 


MR.   BARNES'S    DEFENCE. 


A  SON  OF  THE  HUGUENOTS. 


NEW-YORK : 

ROBERT    CARTER,    112    C  AN  AL- S  TR  EET. 


1836. 


SCATCHERD  &  ADAMS, 

PRINTERS, 

3a  Gold  Ktreet. 


THE    CRISIS,    &c. 


Many  circumstances  concur  to  mark  the  present  as  an  era  of  absorb- 
ing interest  to  the  friends  of  truth  and  righteousness.  Fluctuation  is,  in 
strong  features,  impressed  upon  the  face  of  nature.  Principles  and  esta- 
l)hshments,  old,  and  wise,  and  venerable — physical,  political,  and  moral — 
are  rudely  assailed  by  a  spirit  of  daring  and  unhallowed  innovation. 
The  Bible  is  attacked — the  Church,  bought  with  the  precious  blood  of 
the  eternal  Son  of  God,  and  destined  to  elevate  and  bless  mankind,  is 
pushed,  by  pretended  friends  and  deluded  votaries,  into  the  "  fiery  trial." 
Whether,  in  her  present  form,  she  will  be  utterly  consumed,  emerge  from 
the  flames  marred  and  spoiled  of  her  heavenly  beauty,  or  come  forth 
purified  from  her  dross,  as  gold  refined,  time  must  prove. 

In  the  Presbyterian  Church  every  thing  precious  to  true  believers  and 
to  our  ruined  world  is  brought  into  fearful  jeopardy.  It  is  high  time  for 
all  honest  and  good  men  to  come  forth  to  the  help  of  the  Lord  against  the 
opposers  of  his  truth. 

Under  deep  impressions  of  danger  and  of  duty,  we  ask  the  calm  and 
solemn,  and  prayerful  attention  of  all  true  Presbyterians,  to  the  following 
plain  statement  of  facts. 

The  evils  threatened  to  our  beloved  Church,  and  the  designs  of  her  ad- 
versaries, whether  partially  fulfilled  or  still  prospective,  are  clearly  con- 
centrated in  the  case  of  the  Rev.  Albert  Barnes.  Although  it  is  not  the 
object  of  these  pages  to  eater  directly  into  the  controversy  between  him 
and  Dr.  Junkin,  we  cannot  withhold  a  few  passing  remarks  upon  the 
JVotes  on  the  Romans  and  the  character  of  their  author. 

No  undertaking  requires  so  many  peculiar,  rare,  and  high  qualifications 
as  that  of  a  sacred  commentator.  To  this  work  Mr.  Barnes's  capacity 
is  by  no  means  adapted.  He  does  not  possess  the  precision  and  accura- 
cy of  mind — the  nice  discrimination — the  comprehensiveness  of  view — 
the  age — patience — distrust  of  self-exemption  from  prejudice — extensive, 
various,  and  well-digested  knowledge,  necessary  to  execute  this  arduous 
task  with  success.  Besides,  suspected  as  he  always  has  been,  especially 
since  he  published  his  sermon  on  the  Way  of  Salvation,  by  a  large  and 
respectable  number  of  his  brethren,  who  had  the  best  means  of  knowing, 
with  holding  erroneous  opinions — doctrines  offensive  to  the  Church  be- 
cause at  variance  wnth  her  standards — and  satisfied  of  the  fact,  as  he  ap- 
pears to  have  been,  it  was  certainly  a  very  rash  measure  so  hastily  to  spread 
before  the  world  his  crude  strictures  on  the  Romans.     What  has  or- 


k 


curred,  under  such  circumstances,  could  not  fail  to  occur.  The  per- 
formance is  very  imperfect ;  sufficient  greatly  to  depress,  if  not  destroy, 
his  reputation  as  a  theologian  and  scholar  in  the  estimation  of  sound  and 
accurate  men.  The  Apostle's  profound  and  comprehensive  arguments, 
either  from  design  to  misrepresent  them,  or  from  want  of  clear  and  ex- 
panded views,  are  exhibited,  in  many  places,  in  detached  and  broken 
parts,  as  incoherent  fragments  of  thought ;  often  destitute  of  meaning, 
force,  or  beauty.  In  some  of  the  most  difficult  and  important  passages, 
there  is  much  perversion,  evasion,  and  concealment ;  and,  in  some 
instances,  attempts  to  annihilate  what  the  learned  and  pious  have  ever  pro- 
nounced to  be  the  very  essence  of  the  sacred  text.  The  plainest  princi- 
ples of  Greek  grammar,  which  every  schoolboy  ought  to  be  familiar 
with,  are  set  at  naught ;  and  the  best  established  rules  of  exegetical  ex- 
position outraged,  to  make  the  Apostle's  language  tally  with  his  expo- 
sitor's preconceived  opinions. 

That  Mr.  Barnes  holds  unsound  doctrines  is  now  established  by  his 
own  statements  and  concessions  ;  and  I  do  most  honestly  declare  that  I 
never  was  fully  satisfied  of  his  serious  criminality  till  I  received  the  con- 
viction from  a  careful  reading  of  his  own  attempt  at  vindication.  The 
very  effort  he  makes  to  pervert  the  nature  and  impair  the  force  of  our 
ordination  vows — to  resolve  these  most  sacred  engagements  into  mere 
matters  of  firm,  allowing  numberless  reserves  and  departures  from  their 
letter  and  spirit — abrogating,  at  once,  their  solemn  sanctions  and  binding 
force,  gives  origin  to  most  painful  suspicions  ;  and  is  an  enormity  never 
before,  in  our  land,  with  so  much  effiontery,  put  forth  to  the  light — an 
enormity  deserving  the  solemn  consideration  and  rebuke  of  the  Church. 

Our  strictures  will  be  confined  chiefly'to  Mr.  B.'s  preliminary  remarks 
in  his  defence,  which  abound  with  positions  of  the  most  unwarrantable 
nature,  inasmuch  as  their  direct  tendency  is  to  destroy  the  purity  and 
peace  of  our  Church.  We  feel  this  examination  to  be  the  more  neces- 
sary, and  the  more  entirely  justifiable,  from  the  fact  that  his  statements 
forin  no  part  of  the  documents  which  are  to  be  laid  before  the  General 
Assembly  in  his  appeal  ;  and  yet,  if  unanswered,  they  will  exert  an  ex- 
tensive ex  parte  influence  on  the  expected  decision.* 

*  The  writer  hpre  refers,  chiefly,  to  the  indications  affimied  during  the  recent  inves- 
tigations in  Mr.  B,'s  case.  A  volutne  would  not  suffice  to  contain  a  full  view  of  the 
various  plans  and  movements  of  ihis  party  to  accomplish  tlicir  object.  Indeed,  the  his- 
tory of  the  N.  S.  faclion,  for  many  past  years,  if  fanly  drawn,  would  exhibit  liule  more 
than  a  constunt  series  of  aitful,  disorderly,  and  laboiioiis  t-flbifs,  to  destroy  the  promi- 
nent features  of  the  Presbyterian  system.  To  promote  this  work  the  Heme  Missionary 
and  Presbyterian  Education  Societies  were  established,  and  especially  remodelled  into 
their  present  form.  'I'he  Am.  Ed.  Society  has  been  unilbrmlv  devoted  to  ihe  same  ser- 
vice. New  England  associations  have  co-oprrated  with  the  N.  School  by  ordaining 
unsound  candidates,  who  had  been  refiiseft  admission  in  ourown  body,  and  then  return- 
ins  them  (with  their  papers)  to  spuious  Presbyteries,  who  readily  received  them.  As 
a  fit  instrumentality  in  tliis  workof  disorganization,  elective  affinity  Presbyteries  were  in- 
troduced. Mnliitndes  of  papers,  parnpldeis,  and  magdzini  s  have  been  issu.  d  as  auxilia- 
ries. Men  diilled  for  the  woikof  contamination  have  been  fiaudu!ently  snuigwled  into  or- 
thodox serninaiies  and  churchts,  to  propagate  their  errois,  create  divisions, "and  impair 
the  ulory  of  our  church.  Her  catechisms  have  been  corrupted,  and  larcre  spuiious  edi- 
tions disgorged  upon  the  churches.  The  theology  of  our  hvmns  and  sacr  d  songs  lias 
been  mutilated  so  as  to  deprive  them  of  their  high  and  useful  character  for  scriptural 


The  leading  object  of  these  she'^ts  is  to  show  design,  in  Mr.  B.  and 
his  adherents,  to  introduce  into  our  Church  corruption  of  doctrine  and 
order;  to  evade  honest  investigation  and  constitutional  trial;  lo  mislead 
the  public  mind  by  uncandid  and  inflammatory  statements  ;  to  excite  odi- 
um against  the  truth  and  its  advocates  ;  in  a  word,  to  defeat  judicial  pro- 
ceedings, and  paralyse  all  discipline  in  the  Church,  with  a  design  to  open 
a  wide  door  for  the  enl  ranee  of  every  "  unclean  thing." 

Before  proceeding,  allow  me  to  make  some  prehminary  observations 
considered  of  importance. 

First :  my  appearing  in  this  manner  is  the  result  of  absolute  constraint. 
The  friends  of  truth  and  order,  with  one  consent,  after  the  decision  of  the 
Synod  of  Philadelphia  and  the  appeal  taken  by  Mr.  Barnes,  resolved  to 
let  the  whole  matter  go  up  to  the  proper  tribunal  on  its  own  merits,  with- 
out discussion  or  a  single  effort  to  prejudice  his  cause.  This  course, 
justice,  delicacy,  and  usau,e,  all  seemed  to  demand  both  from  them  and 
from  him.  His  violation  of  this  course  is  now  notorious  tbrough  our 
land.  They  have  been  true  to  their  purpose,  till  farther  silence  would  in- 
volve a  criminal  dereliction  of  duty,  and  abandonment  of  the  truth  of 
God,  and  the  very  existence  of  his  Church  to  the  influence  of  most  un- 
warrantable measures.  In  these  circumstances,  as  the  humble  advocate 
of  the  cause  of  God  and  of  our  venerated  system,  in  this  day  of  slander 
and  reproach  from  those  whom  "  a  deceived  heart  hath  turned  aside," 
with  great  reluctance  I  lift  my  feeble  pen.  It  is  not  a  victory  of  person 
or  of  party,  but  the  triumph  of  Gospel  truth  over  its  foes,  that  is  sought. 

Again  :  let  it  be  distinctly  observed  that  the  present  question  is  no  lo- 
cal matter — not  merely  a  controversy  in  the  city  or  Synod  of  Philadel- 
phia. Can  it  be  a  matter  of  duty  or  of  interest,  in  any  possible  view  of 
the  subject,  exclusively,  to  that  Synod,  to  detect  heresy — to  suppress  a  dan- 
gerous book,  published  indeed  within  their  limits,  but  industriously  circu- 
lated through  the  whole  land  1  God  forbid  !  We  cannot  assent  to  the  idea 
that  the  suppression  of  error  and  vindication  of  truth  in  the  United  States — 
that  defending  the  pure  standard  of  our  great  and  holy  Presbyterian  body 
has  devolved  upon  that  Synod  alone.  We  are  not  willing  to  impose  upon 
them  the  exclusive  labor,  nor  to  concede  to  them  this  high  exclusive  honor, 
and  to  stand  idly  by  and  push  the  cause  of  God  and  of  souls  thus  coldly 
from  us.  We  too  feel  a  solemn,  because  a  deep  and  eternal  interest,  in 
this  momentous  struggle  between  darkness  and  light.  The  cause  of 
truth  is  one  of  absorbing  interest  to  every  child  of  God  and  to  every  lover 
of  Zion.     Our  common  vows,  our  common  dangers,  our  common  hopes, 

truth  and  doctrinal  purity.  NiimherleFS  Runners  have  been  commissioned,  and  paid  in 
part,  at  common  expense,  under  the  characters  of  ministers,  missionaries,  stated  sup- 
plies, editors,  professors,  revival-makers,  teachers,  singers,  agenis,  bookseller?,  travel- 
ling merchants,  &c.,  with  the  specific,  design  of  circulating  new  divinity,  introducing 
new  measures,  undermini  ig  orthodox  ministers,  dividing  orthodox  congregations  and 
establishinii  new  ones,  upon  heretical  or  schismatic  principles.  Recently  it  has  ap- 
peared to  be  systematic  in  the  N.  S.  to  oppose  all  orthodox  institutions,  and  not  less  so 
to  assail  pure  and  faithful  preachers  and  teachers  with  slander  and  invective.  And  to 
consummate  this  atrocious  scheme,  funds  have  been  raised  and  appropriated,  so  as  to 
involve  the  high  and  hateful  crime  of  bribery,  to  corrupt  the  Church.  These  statemf-nts 
are  not  made  as  floating  rumours,  resting  upon  a  doubtful  basis  : — they  are  susceptible 
of  positive  proof,  on  indisputable  evidence,  before  any  competent  and  impartial  tribunal. 


6 

should  inspire  common  zeal,  and  lead  to  prompt  and  united  action  in  the 
common  cause. 

Again  :  we  assume  it  as  an  indisputable  principle,  that  the  Presbyte- 
rian Church  have  a  perfect  right,  in  common  with  all  denominations  of 
Christians,  to  create  a  test  or  formula  by  which  to  distinguish  themselves 
from  the  other  parts  of  the  great  Christian  body — to  try  the  purity,  and 
regulate  the  faith  and  practice  of  their  members — and  to  guard  against 
innovations  and  corruptions  from  every  quarter.  In  establishing  a  Con- 
fession of  Faith  and  form  of  Discipline,  they  have  followed  the  example, 
early  and  constantly  set  by  all  denominations,  not  only  in  erecting  stand- 
ards, but  in  requiring  honest  conformity  to  them. 

Again :  the  present  inquiry  involves  no  charge  against  the  religious 
character  or  ministerial  fidelity  of  Mr.  Barnes.  With  these  matters  the 
prosecution  has  nothing  to  do.  It  is  a  simple  question  of  conformity  or 
non-conformity  to  the  Confession  of  Faith — of  soundness  or  unsound- 
ness in  doctrine — of  observance  or  violation  of  ordination  vows.  It  is 
to  be  decided  by  reference  to  the  law  and  testimony.  We  do  not  pre- 
tend to  assert,  that  either  wisdom  or  piety  is  confined  within  the  liniits  of 
our  Church,  or  to  be  measured  by  the  articles  of  our  creed.  But  we  do 
say,  that  no  man,  after  voluntarily  assuming  the  prescribed  obligations, 
can  honestly  and  innocently  preach  and  publish,  while  within  our  bosom, 
sentiments  at  variance  with  our  doctrines  ;  that  the  purity  of  the  Church 
must  be  impaired  by  it ;  her  peace  marred  ;  her  essential  and  lovely  fea- 
tures changed  ;  and  her  very  existence  gradually  undermined  by  such  a 
course. 

Again  :  differences  of  opinion  do  not  imply,  and  need  not  create,  per- 
sonal animosity ;  they  are  consistent  with  kind  and  respectful  feelings 
between  individuals  whose  doctrinal  views  are  most  directly  opposed. 
The  writer  of  these  remarks  disavows  all  personal  antipathy  to  Mr. 
Barnes.  His  intercourse  with  that  brother,  during  the  last  ten  years,  has 
been  of  the  most  kind  and  fraternal  character.  In  this  proposed  illus- 
tration he  is  not  conscious  of  any  desire  to  injure  Mr.  Barnes ;  but  feels 
imperiously  bound,  as  far  as  in  him  lies,  to  maintain  those  sacred  inte- 
rests to  which  he  has  given  an  irrevocable  pledge  and  consecrated  his  life, 
whatever  sacrifices  of  feeling  may  be  involved :  and,  in  the  words  of 
•'  the  book  of  the  covenant," — "  whatever  persecutions  may  arise  unto  him 
on  that  account." 

Lastly :  as  a  fundamental  principle,  take  notice,  that  the  ministers 
of  the  Church  are  pre-eminently  responsible  to  her  for  their  opinions 
and  their  conduct.  This  remark  is  the  more  necessary  and  import- 
ant here,  as  Mr.  Barnes,  in  the  very  threshold  of  his  defence,  really 
seems  -  to  claim  exemption  from  the  authority  and  supervision  of  the 
Church.  He  tells  us,  virtually,  that  it  is  an  improper  and  unjusti- 
fiable thing  to  call  a  minister,  who  thinks  himself  in  good  standing. 
who  is  laboring  diligently,  and  surrounded  by  a  united  people,  to  spend 
"his  time,  and  patience,  and  strength  to  answer  to  accusations,"  &c. 
Hear  the  Book  of  Discipline,  ch.  v.  sec.  1. :  "  No  minister  ought,  on  ac- 
count of  his  office,  to  be  screened  from  justice,  nor  his  offences  to  be 
slightly  censured."     This  relates  to  general  conduct.     Hear  the  Book 


on  the  subject  of  doctrine,  ch.  xx.  sec.  4. :  "  And  for  their  publishing 
such  erroneous  opinions,  as  either  in  their  own  nature,  or  in  the  manner  of 
pubUshing  or  maintaining  them,  are  destructive  to  the  external  peace  and 
order  which  Christ  hath  estabUshed  in  the  Church,  they  may  lawfully  be 
called  to  account  and  proceeded  against  by  the  censures  of  the  Church." 
Gov.  ch.  V.  sec.  13.  :  "  Heresy  and  schism  may  be  of  such  a  nature  as  to 
infer  deposition:  but  errors  ought  to  be  carefully  considered,  whether  they 
strike  at  the  vitals  of  religion,  and  are  industriously  spread/^  In  this  case 
the  prosecutor  declares  his  persuasion,  and  every  enlighted  and  sincere 
Christian,  who  beheves  the  charges,  must  concur  in  the  belief,  that 
Mr.  Barnes's  errors  strike  at  the  foundation  of  the  Christian's  hope  for 
eternity. 

We  now  return  to  our  main  object,  which  is,  to  show  design  in  Mr. 
Barnes  and  his  coadjutors,  to  corrupt  the  Church,  &c.  &c. 

In  his  defence  against  the  charges  of  Dr.  Junkin,  Mr.  Barnes  has  so 
far  implicated  the  Theological  Seminary  at  Princeton,  and  the  Presbytery 
of  New  Brunswick,  as  to  render  necessary  some  statement  of  the  opinion 
entertained  respecting  him  while  on  trials  before  that  judicatory.  So  far 
as  the  writer  recollects  or  can  ascertain  now,  he  was  considered,  by  those 
who  knew  him  best,  as  a  young  man  of  pretty  good  parts,  hopeful  piety, 
desirous  of  knowledge  and  addicted  to  study — but  imprudently  fond  of 
Eastern  theories  and  speculations — tenacious  of  novel  and  doubtful 
opinions — often  occasioning  among  his  fellow-students  unprofitable  and 
perplexing  disputations  ;  on  the  whole,  as  to  his  theological  course,  rather 
creating  painful  apprehensions  than  inspiring  confidence.  In  his  trials 
before  the  Presbytery',  his  evasive  and  equivocal  terms,  and  unusual 
statements  on  some  cardinal  points,  excited  dissatisfaction  in  the  minds 
of  some  members.  But  supposing,  as  they  did,  that  they  might  have 
been  somewhat  mistaken — that  the  candidate  might  have  spoken  un- 
guardedly— that  he  would  obtain  more  clear  and  satisfactory  views  by 
age  and  reflection,  and  inclining  to  great  moderation  and  indulgence — 
there  was  no  open  objection  made  to  Mr.  Barnes's  licensure.  Soon  after 
he  was  transferred,  for  ordination,  to  a  sister  Presbytery,  upon  whom  de- 
volved the  chief  responsibility  of  inducting  him  into  the  sacred  office. 

Here  it  is  to  be  observed,  that  a  designing,  artful  candidate  can  deceive 
any  Presbytery.  Mr.  Barnes  now  informs  us,  that  while  at  Princeton  his 
vieivs  ivere  the  same  as  now  !  If  this  be  true,  it  is  a  serious  fact,  as  we 
shall  discover — a  dark  and  melancholy  chapter  in  his  history.  In  his 
assertion,  that  this  was  Jully  knoivn,  he  commits  a  monstrous  mistake  ! 
Had  he  honestly  and  fully  disclosed  his  opinions,  as  they  are  now  Jully 
known,  there  cannot  be  a  doubt — fidelity  to  be  principles  and  character 
of  that  pure  and  respectable  company  of  Christian  ministers,  compels  the 
declaration — that  he  would  assuredly  have  been  rebuked  and  rejected. 
It  is  evident  from  his  own  words  that  he  entered  the  holy  office  as  a 
probationer  by  such  an  act  as  ought  to  affect  any  minister's  public  character. 
We  regret  Mr.  Barnes's  reference  to  this  Presbytery,  as  it  imposes,  to 
some  extent,  the  painful  duty  of  explanation.  Even  if  that  body,  in  its 
Presbyterial  capacity,  choose  passively  to  bear  the  reference,  some  indi- 
vidual members  feel  a  desire  to  wipe  off  the  stigma.  It  is  always  offensive 


i 


8 

to  be  duped  ;  but  still  more  so  to  be  publicly  told  of  it.  Why  did  not  Mr. 
Barnes  keep  this  tact  securely  laid  up  in  his  own  breast?  The  charge, 
not  indeed  directly  brought  by  him,  is  certainly  implied,  and  will  be  un- 
sparingly urged  by  others,  that  this  Presbytery  either  sympathized  in  his 
errors  or  were  too  obtuse  to  discern  them  !  Of  what  avail,  then,  is  the 
reference?  But  how  uncandid  and  unjust  does  it  seem  to  make  the 
Presbytery  responsible  for  a  licensure  which,  his  own  words  roundly  aver, 
was  obtained  by  double-dealing;  that  is, by  assenting  to  the  standards  in 
one  form,  and  silently  and  secretly  intending  to  interpret  them  in  another  ! 
For,  as  we  shall  see,  from  Mr.  Barnes's  own  account  of  this  transaction, 
such  is  its  just  import. 

The  plan  of  making  secret  exceptions  and  mental  reservations  in  form- 
ing contracts,  has  always  been  considered  by  honest  men  as  culpable  and 
disgraceful.  Our  Confession  condemns  it,  ch.  xxii.  sec.  4.  :  "  An  oath 
is  to  be  taken  in  the  plain  and  common  sense  of  the  words,  without  equi- 
vocation or  mental  reservation  /"  This  dishonest  course  was  denounced 
in  the  Assembly  of  1834,  which  did  more  to  favor  heresy  that  any  preced- 
ing General  Assembly,  viz  :  "Resolved,  that  in  receiving  and  adopting  the 
formularies  of  our  Church,  every  person  ought  to  be  supposed,  without 
evidence  to  the  contrary,  to  receive  and  adoptthem  according  to  the  obvious, 
knoion,  and  established  meaning  of  the  terms,  as  the  confession  of  his  faith; 
and  that  if  objections  be  made,  the  Presbytery,  unless  he  withdraw  such 
objections,  should  not  license,  or  ordain,  or  admit  him." — Ex.  p.  26.  T  he 
Presbyteryof  New  Brunswick, in  takingMr.  Barnes's  solemn  engagrement, 
really  beheved  he  was  receiving  and  adopting  the  Confession  of  Faith  ac- 
cording to  the  obvious,  known,  and  established  meaning  of  its  terms.  But 
Mr.  Barnes  now  discloses  something  widely  different.  "  The  system  of 
doctrines  contained  in  the  standards  I  received  as  a  system.  I  received 
it,  not  indeed  ever  expressing  my  assent  to  every  expression  and  form  of  ex- 
pression, but  as  reserving  to  myself  </ie  right,  in  common  with  all  others, 
of  examining  the  language  and  forming  an  opinion  of  its  meaning."  This 
is  in  direct  violation  of  the  above  extracts  from  the  Confession  of  Faith 
and  the  minutes  of  the  Assembly.  Mr.  Barnes  here  takes  a  position,  we 
think,  far  in  advance  of  the  main  body  of  troublesome  intruders  into  our 
Church.  They  have  practised  this  artifice — been  suspected  of  it — been 
charged  with  it — but  from  fear  of  public  opinion  and  the  shame  of  detec- 
tion, they  have  stoutly  denied  the  charge  !  Mr.  Barnes  throws  off  all 
restraint,  takes  the  very  ground  of  Unitarians,  Pelagians.  Taylorites,  of  his 
Eastern  theological  fraternity,  and  openly  asserts  the  right  of  signing  the 
Confession  as  a  whole,  for  doctrine,  for  substance — intending  to  interpret, 
mutilate,  or  distort  the  individual  parts  of  the  system,  to  suit  any  other 
system  which  latent  scepticism,  false  philosophy,  fanaticism,  or  folly  may 
suggest.  Is  not  this  monstrous  for  a  man  laying  claims  to  common  sense 
and  common  honesty !  He  even  asserts  that  he  entered  the  sacred  office 
exercising  this  right,  these  secret  reserves  and  hidden  intentions ;  tlius 
imposing  upon  the  pure  and  unsuspecting  judicatories  through  which  he 
passed  ;  nay,  he  tells  us,  that  on  this  right  of  secret  reserves  and  exceptions 
he  vindicates  himself  in  holding  the  false  doctrines  of  which  he  now  stands 
convicted  before  the  Church.      Now,  what  is  this  but  setting  up  one 


9 

crime  to  vindicate  another — practising  fraud  to  secure  advantages  for  pro- 
pagating heresy  1  Without  preferring  any  charge,  we  would  here  recom- 
mend to  Mr.  Barnes  for  serious  consideration,  the  remarkable,  and,  as  we 
conceive,  not  inappropriate  language  of  Peter  to  Ananias,  Acts  v.  3. : 
•♦  Why  hath  Satan  filled  thine  heart  to  lie  to  the  Holy  Ghost,  and  to  keep 
back  part  of  the  price  (promise)  1  Whiles  it  remained,  was  it  not  thine 
own  1  Why  hast  thou  conceived  this  thing  in  thine  heart  ]  Thou  hast 
not  Hed  unto  man,  but  unto  God." 

In  examining  Mr.  Barnes's  subsequent  course,  as  developed  by  himself, 
we  find  similar  exhibitions  of  unsound  and  disorderly  views,  with  short 
interims,  down  to  the  present  time  ;  and  a  party  striving  by  every  means 
in  their  power  to  sustain  him.  His  resolution  was  early  formed,  and  has 
been  pertinaciously  followed  up,  to  trample  upon  the  Confession  of  Faith  ; 
to  make  his  assumption  of  it  a  mere  convenience,  and  the  general  pledge 
given  to  it  a  nominal  thing  which  every  minister  and  member  of  the  Church 
may  observe  or  not,  in  its  known  and  established  import.  This  point 
gained,  error  may  enter  in  all  its  various  forms,  and  triumph.  In  accordance 
with  this,  we  find,  in  his  sermon  on  The  Way  of  Salvation,  he  unhesita- 
tingly discards  the  public  standards  : — "  Nor  is  he  to  be  cramped  by  any 
frame-work  of  faith  that  has  been  reared  around  the  Bible."  How  decisive 
and  contemptuous  is  such  language  from  a  man  who  had  bound  himself, 
by  the  most  impressive  and  awful  sanctions,  to  regard  that  very  frame-work 
honestly,  according  to  its  spirit  and  letter ! — for  such  is  the  interpretation 
put  upon  the  oath  by  those  who  administered  it.  Seldom,  indeed,  have 
we  been  more  astonished  and  grieved  than  at  finding  so  many  indications 
of  this  character.  The  sermon  containing  this  renunciation  of  our  stand- 
ards exhibits  principles  and  views  opposed  to  some  most  important  doc- 
trines of  our  Confession.  Hence  the  zeal  and  perseverance  of  his  adherents 
to  screen  both  himself  and  his  discourse  from  deserved  censure.  The  result 
is  well  known.  Mr.  Barnes's  account  of  the  transaction  is  quite  remarkable : 
— "Charges  similiar  to  these  had  been  alleged  against  me,  not  indeed  in  a 
formal  and  regular  manner,  but  in  an  irregular  manner,  by  the  Presbytery 
of  Philadelphia.  Those  accusations  had  been  laid  before  the  General  As- 
sembly, and  the  highest  judicature  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  had  fully 
acquitted  me  of  them  /"  Did  that  General  Assembly,  or  any  other,  ever 
declare  that  Mr.  Barnes  did  not  hold  the  opinions  charged  as  errors  ?  Mr. 
Barnes  knows  to  the  contrary.  This  full  acquittal  was  such  as  left  more 
than  two  fifths  of  that  Assembly  fully  persuaded  of  his  guilt  in  the  matter 
of  accusation.  The  decision,  as  was  openly  avowed  by  a  large  portion 
both  of  the  majority  and  minority,  turned  much  more  on  points  of  policy 
than  upon  the  merits  of  the  cha-ges.  The  same  controversy  was  conti- 
nued, in  different  forms,  till  the  Assembly  of  1834  introduced  and  sanction- 
ed the  affinity  system.  This  decisive  step  in  favour  of  heresy,  instead  of 
acquitting  Mr.  Barnes,  admitted  his  guilt,  and  was  designed  to  provide 
for  him  a  safe  retreat  in  his  heretical  course.  In  all  these  complicate 
measures,  from  year  to  year,  the  same  man  in  substance  is  indirectly 
under  process.  In  the  back  ground  we  discover  a  conspiracy  in  progress 
to  shelter  these  dangerous  opinions  and  their  author  from  merited  con- 
demnation; to  provide  inlets  for  large  numbers  of  these  spurious  operators ; 
2 


10 

and  eventually  to  overturn  the  whole  Presbyterian  system.  Mr.  Barnes 
never  has  been  acquitted  in  the  Presbyterian  Church;  and  while  he  holds 
his  heretical  opinions,  and  ske  adheres  to  her  standards,  based  upon  the 
pure  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  he  never  can  be  set  free  from  the  charges 
now  alleged.  His  present  course  proves  an  obstinate  adherence  to  his 
original  design  of  introducing  corruption  into  the  Church.  His  co-ope- 
rators have  embraced  the  present  opportunity  as  propitious  to  their  com- 
mon object.  His  early  prejudices — his  prominent  position — his  rapid 
advances  in  the  career  of  error — his  popularity  as  a  man  and  minister — his 
reckless  devotion  to  party — and  his  predominant  passion  for  pre-emi- 
nence, quahfy  him  well  for  the  distinguished  place  assigned  him  in  this 
nefarious  work. 

Mr.  Barnes's  Sermon  before  the  Theological  Seminary  at  Princeton, 
September,  1834,  still  farther  discloses  his  rage  for  speculation  on  the 
truths  of  the  Bible.  "  Nor  is  it,"  says  he,  referring  to  modern  discoveries 
in  science,  "  nor  is  it  demonstrated  that  the  limit  of  advancement  is  yet 
reached  ;  or  that  the  human  mind  must  pause  here  and  hope  to  proceed 
no  farther.  These  men  (philosophers  named)  have  just  opened  illimitable 
fields  of  thought  before  the  mind.  And  so  it  may  be  in  Theologij.  The 
system  was  as  perfect  in  the  Scriptures  as  Astronomy  ivas  before  JVewton 
lived  ;  yet  it  is  possible  that  there  are  truths,  and  relations  of  truths,  which 
the  mind  has  not  yet  contemplated.'"  We  introduce  this  extract  merely  to  ex- 
hibit Mr.  Barnes's  real  character  to  the  public,  whom  he  has  so  elaborately 
and  voluminously  addressed,  to  show  how  completely  he  has  thrown  off 
all  the  restraints  of  our  standards,  and  rejected  the  landmarks  of  reason 
and  commtm  sense.  And  we  now  ask  the  Christian  world.  Is  it  true  that 
the  Bible  is  susceptible  of  entire  renovation  and  radical  amendment?  Has 
the  profound  and  critical  learning  of  all  preceding  ages  proved  abortive? 
Are  the  grand  essential  principles  of  revealed  truth  still  enveloped  in  dark- 
ness and  doubt  1  Is  it  possible,  as  Mr.  Barnes  plainly  intimates,  that 
entire  misapprehension  and  utter  ignorance  on  points  of  primary  import- 
ance may  still  exist,  to  be  detected  and  removed  by  some  modern  theolo- 
gical adventurer,  as  Newton  and  La  Place  expelled  the  ignorance  and 
crudity  existing  before  their  day  in  Astronomical  science?  This  is  the 
vision  gravely  presented  by  Mr.  Barnes.  Concede  to  him  that  Theology, 
the  meaning  of  the  Bible,  is  to  be  altered,  amended,  or  new-modelled,  as 
Astronomy  was  by  Newton — as  a  system  of  experimental  philosophy ; 
or  like  the  progressive  science  of  Botany  or  Chemistry,  like  a  cotton  gin 
or  steam  engine  ;  and  all  religious  truth  may  be  sublimated,  frittered  away, 
and  ejected  from  the  world,  by  the  insatiable  spirit  of  innovation.  Besides, 
what  confidence  can  be  placed  in  the  public  ministry  of  a  man  whose  opi- 
nions rest  upon  so  visionary  and  fluctuating  a  basis  1  How  can  he  him- 
self proclaim  and  urge  any  thing  upon  dying  souls  as  the  truth  of  God 
and  able  to  save,  when  it  may  be  an  obsolete  error,  a  total  mistake,  which 
the  march  of  mind  and  increase  of  light  may  supersede ;  and  then  follow 
with  some  new  vision,  to  be,  in  its  turn,  admired  and  abandoned?  The 
direct  and  inevitable  tendency  of  Mr.  Barnes's  views  on  this  subject,  is  to 
shake  the  foundation  of  all  sacred  truth ;  not  only  to  create  in  ordinary 
minds  a  vacillating  temper — not  only  to  impair  the  precious  hopes  of 


ir^ 


u 

established  believers  in  the  sublimest  truths  of  Christianity ;  but  to  inspire 
universal  doubt — to  scalier  among  sinful  men  the  seeds  of  cavilling — 
scepticism — and  of  death !  This  system  of  "  ever  learning  and  never 
coming  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth," — 2  Tim.  iii.  6. — none  are  so  ready 
to  embrace  as  those  vi'ho  greatly  overvalue  their  own  abihty  and  import- 
ance. *  Some  admirable  fruits  of  Mr.  Barnes's  splendid  fiction  may  be 
seen  in  his  Notes  on  the  Romans  ;  a  {ew  choice  specimens  condensed,  in 
Dr.  Junkin's  charges  against  him  for  heresy. 

Mr.  Barnes's  defence  is  replete  with  painful  indications  of  design  to 
evade  his  ordination  vows,  and  to  depart  from  the  Confession  of  our  faith. 
The  following  passage  admits  the  charges  and  evinces  fixed  purpose,  at 
least,  under  the  present  process,  to  cleave  to  his  errors  and  brave  all  con- 
sequences. "  I  am  not  conscious  of  being  so  obstinately  attached  to  the 
exposition  which  I  have  adopted,  as  to  be  unwilling  to  be  convinced  of  er- 
ror;  and,  if  convinced,  to  abandon  the  sentiments  which  I  have  expressed. 
Whether  the  mode  that  will  be  most  likely  to  secure  a  change  of  opinion  is 
that  of  arraigning  me  for  the  high  misdemeanor  of  heresy,  is  the  most  de- 
sirable to  secure  such  a  result,  I  shall  not  now  inquire.  In  this  land  and 
in  these  times,  a  change  of  opinion  is  to  be  effected,  not  by  the  language 
of  authority  — not  by  an  appeal  to  the  Jathers — not  by  calling  on  us  sim- 
ply to  listen  to  the  voice  of  other  times  ;  but  by  the  sober  and  solid  expo- 
sition of  the  oracles  of  God.  Men,  even  in  error,  listen  respectfully  to 
those  who  attempt  to  reason  with  them  and  to  convince  them  that  they 
are  wrong  ;  theij  turn  instinctively  aioay  when  denunciation  takes  the  place 
of  argument,  and  the  cry  of  heresy  is  the  substitute  for  a  sober  appeal  to 
the  understanding."  Mr.  Barnes's  reformation  then  is  hopeless  !  He 
ad(nits  that  he  is  in  error.  He  quarrels  dreadfully  with  Dr.  Junkin's  con- 
stitutional resort  to  set  him  right.  He  has  proved  incorrigible  under  a 
constant  course  of  warning  and  admonition  ever  since  he  entered  Phila- 
delphia. The  history  of  our  Church,  fur  the  last  five  years,  is  an  indelible 
record  of  that  fact !  If  Dr.  Junkin  had  approached  him  with  bended  knee 
and  suppliant  tone — if  the  church  had  come  (not  with  authority!) 
humbly  suing  at  his  feet,  he  might  have  deigned  to  listeii.  But  the  name 
of  heresy,  accusations,  charges,  dreadful !  He  turns  instinctively  aicay  ! 
Yes,  and  hugs  his  false  opinions  closer  than  ever.  Remember  this  is  the 
profoundly  meek  and  devout  Mr.  Barnes.  Remember,  too,  w  hen  in  error, 
his  embracing  or  refusing  reform  depends  not  upon  the  nature,  the  evidence, 
the  importance  of  truth ;  but  upon  the  gentleness,  the  soft  and  timid  re- 
serve, the  courtesy,  with  which  it  is  commended  to  him.  Admirable  trait 
in  a  new  school  Commentator!  ! 

That  Mr.  Barnes  never  felt  the  force  of  his  ordination  covenant,  that  he 
never  intended  to  regard  it,  nay,  that  he  studiously  designed  to  set  it  at 
nought,  no  man  can  doubt  who  attentively  examines  his  defence.  The 
following  extract  proclaims,  and  even  argues,  not  only  his  right,  but  his 

*  Mr.  Barnes'3  commendatory  preface  to  the  late  edition  of  Butler's  Analogy, 
though  it  furnished  little  evidence  of  the  modesty  which  some  have  ascribed  to  him, 
admonished  us  to  expect  some  great  attempt  pretty  soon.  Dr.  Butler  is  justly  consi- 
dered one  of  the  great  moral  lights  of  the  world  ;  and  "  without  all  contradiction,  the  less 
is  blessed  of  the  better."    Heb.  vii.  7. 


J 


12 

duty  as  an  expositor,  to  act  in  a  manner  entirely  independent  of  his  obli- 
gations to  the  standards,  and  without  the  slightest  reference  to  them.  And 
this  he  gravely  sets  up  as  a  plea,  or  vindication,  for  the  unsound  opinions 
expressed  in  his  JYotes.  "  It  was  my  intention,  in  preparing  these  Notes, 
not  to  be  influenced  in  the  interpretation  by  a  regard  to  any  creed  or  Con- 
fession of  Faith  whatever.  I  make  this  frank  avowal,  because  it  is  the 
deliberate  and  settled  puiyose  of  my  mind,  and  because  it  is  the  principle 
by  which  I  expect  always  to  be  governed.  I  therefore  state,  that  in  prepar- 
ing these  Notes  I  have  never  had  the  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith 
before  me,  nor  any  other  Confession.  I  have  never  framed  a  sentence, 
to  the  best  of  my  recollection,  with  any  design  that  it  should  be  conformed 
to  the  doctrines  of  any  Confession  of  Faith ! !"  Here  a  very  serious 
question  arises — Has  Mr.  Barnes  acted  honestly  as  a  minirter  in  the 
Presbyterian  church?  We  admit  that  the  duty  of  an  interpreter  of  Scrip- 
ture is, uprightly  and  truly,  free  from  undue  attachment  to  pr-wious  systems, 
to  find  out  and  report  what  the  Holy  Spirit  says.  If  the  interpreter  be  in- 
deed exempt  from  all  commitment  to  existing  forms  of  faith,  he  may  indeed 
pursue  his  labour  without  reference  to  any  Confession,  and  leave  his  work 
to  be  tested  simply  by  its  own  merits  and  the  Word  of  God.  But  if  he 
has  previously  adopted  "a  form  of  sound  words,"  and  bound  himself  to  a 
large  and  sacred  community  of  Jesus  Christ,  inviolably  to  observe  that 
"form,"  in  its  known  and  established  import,  as  an  Epitome  of  Bible  truth — 
and  in  attempting  to  expound  a  sacred  writer,  should  discover,  or  by  some 
means  elicit,  doctrines  opposed  to  the  formula  he  has  voluntarily  assumed  ; 
can  he  consistently  and  honestly  hold  at  the  same  time  those  conflicting 
opinions  ?  Certainly  not.  How  then  shall  he  escape  from  the  dilemma 
into  which  he  has  plunged  himself?  He  must  immediately  accommodate 
his  doctrinal  views  to  his  assumed  standard,  or  peaceably  withdraw  from 
that  communion  with  whose  faith  and  order  he  can  no  longer  harmonize. 
This  is  the  course  prescribed  by  common  sense  and  common  honesty. 
But  Mr.  Barnes's  course  is  very  different.  He  openly  declares  that  he 
commenced  his  Notes  with  an  intention  not  to  be  influenced  by  a  regard  to 
the  Confession  of  Faith.  And  now,  after  finishing  the  work,  being  con- 
victed of  heresy,  and  even  acknowledging  himself  in  error,  he  avows  it 
as  the  deliberate  and  settled  purpose  of  his  mind  ahvays  to  be  governed  by 
this  principle ;  and  yet  pertinaciously  continues  in  the  Church,  whose 
purity  he  has  marred,  whose  peace  he  has  wounded,  and  whose  authority 
he  has  contemned !  After  this,  no  man  will  do  Mr.  Barnes  the  injustice 
to  charge  him  with  being  a  Presbyterian ;  with  belonging,  in  heart  and 
spirit,  to  that  or  any  other  denomination  ;  with  having,  indeed,  any  settled 
views  of  truth  at  all.  If  he  should  be  found  to  agree  with  our  constitu- 
tional Forms  in  any  instance,  it  will  be  by  mere  chance !  Really,  his 
declarations  are  so  wild  and  extravagant,  that  they  seem  scarcely  compa- 
tible with  sanity  of  intellect,  certainly  at  thfi  farthest  remove  from  all  con- 
sistency with  that  integrity  and  candour  of  purpose  and  practice  which 
constitute  the  very  essence  of  fidelity  to  our  holy  ecclesiastical  compact. 
Mr.  Barnes,  pressed  hard  by  difficulties,  and  pent  up  within  narrow  li- 
mits, refusing  the  only  just  and  honourable  modes  of  escape,  reformation  or 
secession,  attempts  several  methods  of  retreat,  both  inadequate  and  unsafe. 


IS 

The  public  will  no  doubt  be  surprised  to  find  him  endeavouring  to  create 
a  refuge  from  the  charge  of  heresy,  under  the  pretence  that  uniformity  of 
opinion  was  never  intended  in  the  Presbyterian  body.  "  The  Presbyterian 
Church  in  this  country  did  not  contemplate  exact  uniformity  of  opinion, 
others  have  been  allowed  to  take  exceptions  ;  a  wide  latitude  was  formerly 
given  to  candidates  for  licensure  and  ordination,  a  latitude  of  interpretation 
certainly  as  wide  as  has  ever  been  desired  or  contended  for  in  more  mo- 
dern times."  Now,  all  this,  and  much  more  of  the  same  kind,  which  he 
confidently  alleges,  is  in  direct  violation  of  true  history  ;  it  is  founded 
upon  concealment  or  distortion  of  palpable  facts,  and  calculated  injurious- 
ly to  impress  those  who  know  not  the  character  of  our  American  churches, 
and  their  early  and  inflexible  devotion  to  definite  and  established  principles 
and  forms.  The  following  Act  of  the  Old  Synod,  passed  1729,  and  su- 
perseded by  numerous  acts  and  decisions  of  our  supreme  judicatory,  is 
adduced  by  Mr  Barnes  in  support  of  his  unfounded  statements  : — "  And 
in  case  any  minister  of  the  Synod,  or  any  candidate  of  the  ministry,  shall 
have  any  scruple  with  respect  to  any  article  or  articles  of  said  Confession, 
he  shall,intimeofmakingsuchdeclaration, dec/are  his  scruples  to  the  Synod 
or  Presbytery:  who  shall,  notwithstanding,  admit  him  to  the  exercises  of 
the  ministry  within  our  bounds,  and  to  ministerial  communion  of  the  Synod 
or  Presbytery — if  it  shall  judge  his  scruples  not  essential,  or  necessary,  in 
doctrine,  tvorship,  or  govenunent.^'  Here  then  is  his  supposed  gap,  through 
which  he  would  introduce  his  heretical  dogmas.  The  etfort  is  a  complete 
failure.  Every  impartial  eye  must  see  that  all  error  is  thoroughly  barred 
out !  By  the  very  act  recited,  no  member,  licentiate,  or  minister,  is  allowed 
the  least  room  for  deviation  in  the  smallest  particular,  without  the  full 
knowledge  and  permission  of  the  Presbytery  or  Synod  to  which  he  belongs. 
In  every  case  of  dissent,  in  the  minutest  concern,  one  of  these  bodies, 
subject  to  review  and  correction  by  the  proper  superior  tribunal,  must  hear 
the  scruples  and  decide  upon  their  character.  The  comprehensive  and 
sweeping  prohibition  extends,  not  only  to  subjects  of  doctrine,  but  modes 
oC  loorship  and  forms  of  government.  It  is  a  pro  re  nata  statute,  as  per- 
fectly specific,  rigid,  and  unbending,  as  could  be  couched  in  language. 
And  yet  this  is  the  only  gate  Mr.  Barnes  can  find  to  let  in  error.  His 
case  is  desperate.  Is  he  retaining  his  heretical  and  disorderly  opinions  by 
license  of  Presbytery  or  Synod]  Did  he  ever  declare  his  scruples  and 
ask  this  liberty,  according  to  the  rule  he  has  produced  ?  When  Dr.  Junkin 
read  his  scruples  to  the  Synod,  he  would  not  appear  in  their  defence  ;  and 
that  body  approached  them  not  at  all  in  the  spirit  of  connivance,  much 
less  of  absolution  !  ! 

Admitting  that  the  old  exploded  statute  of  1729,  adduced  by  Mr. 
Barnes,  were  now  in  force,  his  argument  would  be — Because  the  old  Synod 
granted  to  church  judicatories  some  discretionary  power,  subject  to  re- 
view, of  deciding  on  the  character  of  conscientious  scruples  alleged  by 
candidates,  as  obstacles  to  entering  the  Presbyterian  church,  therefore 
the  quibbling  and  heretical  tribe  of  the  present  day  may  enter  the  Presby- 
tery, with  reserves,  designedly  to  evade  the  force  of  their  ordination  pro- 
raise  and  oppose  the  standards  of  the  Church  ;  and  all  without  giving  to 
the  Presbytery  or  Synod  the  least  intimation  of  the  slightest  dissatisfaction 


u 

with  any  part  of  the  assumed  formula.  A  fair  specimen  of  New  School 
logic  !  But  can  Mr.  B.  be  ignorant  that  the  old  act  in  question  has  been 
set  aside  for  scores  of  years  1  and  can  he  not  recollect  the  decision  of  the 
memorable  Assembly  of  1834,  where  he  was  present  as  a  spectator  and 
abettor  ? — "  That  in  receiving  and  adopting  the  formularies  ot  our  church, 
every  person  ought  to  be  supposed,  without  evidence  to  the  contrary,  to 
receive  and  adopt  them  according  to  the  obvious,  known,  and  established 
meaning  of  the  terms,  as  the  confession  of  his  faith;  and  that  if  objections  be 
made,  the  Presbytery, unless  he  ivilhdraw  such  objections,  should  not  license, 
or  ordain,  or  admit  him."  Extracts,  1834.  Mr.  B.  seems  exceedingly 
honest  and  scrupulous  in  yielding  obedience  to  the  act  of  the  old  Synod. 
Can  any  body  tell  why  he  should  not  pay  some  respect  to  the  absolute 
decree  of  his  grand  ecclesiastical  Jllma  mater,  the  Assembly  of  1834,  to 
whose  unconstitutional  and  suicidal  foster  care  he  undoubtedly  owes  his 
Pi  esbyterial  standing  to  this  hour  1 — She  has  peremptorily  discarded  the 
plea  of  scruples,  and  positively  prohibited  the  admission  of  objectors  al- 
together. The  discretionary  power  is  completely  revoked.  Let  Profes- 
sor Halsey  look  at  this  paragraph.  It  is  intended  to  cast  a  side  glance  at 
his  '  Distinctive  Peculiarities!^ 

But  it  would  appear  from  Mr.  Barnes's  statements,  that  our  Church 
has  been  very  indulgent  toward  unsound  members  in  former  times.  It  is 
to  be  regretted  that  he  has  exposed  himself  so  sadly  to  painful  remark  on 
this  topic.  We  can  scarcely  conceive  how  he  could  be  ignorant  of  the 
long  line  of  facts  opposed  to  his  representations,  or  expect  to  escape  de- 
tection in  misstatements  so  notorious.  The  early  history  of  the  Church 
record  i'ev/  cases  of  error,  and  consequently  of  discipline.  Nothing  is 
more  certain  than  this — the  farther  you  look  back  into  our  ecclesiastical 
character,  the  greater  strictness  and  even  rigour  will  you  find  continually 
in  exercise  to  guard  against  the  approach  of  every  error.  Even  in  1810, 
the  Rev.  AV.  C,  Davis,  whose  "  gospel  plan"  was  under  process  for  he- 
resy, found  not  a  man  in  the  Assembly  to  advocate  his  cause.  The  vote  to 
condemn  his  book,  containing  substantially  the  same  false  doctrine  now 
revived  by  Mr.  B.,  was  unanimous.  The  whole  business  occupied  half  a 
day.  Times  have  greatly  changed.  Now,  the  promoters  of  corruption 
and  discord  have  augmented  their  numbers  and  clog  the  wheels  of  dis- 
cipline:  they  even  reprove  the  advocates  of  truth  and  order  for  attempt- 
ing at  all  to  obstruct  their  desolating  course,  and  boldly  denounce 
us  as  persecutors ;  a  charge  which  might  as  justly  be  urged  by  a  fe- 
lon at  the  bar  against  the  court  and  jury  engaged  in  ferreting  out  his 
crimes. 

In  maintaining  his  false  and  dangerous  positions,  Mr.  B.  calls  to  his 
aid  the  Biblical  Repertory,  Princeton,  Vol.  III.  p.  521,  &c.,  where  he 
finds  the  following  passage — "  The  Confession,  as  framed  by  the  West- 
minster Divines,  was  an  acknowledged  compromise  between  two  classes 
of  Theologians.  When  adopted  by  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  this 
country,  it  was  with  the  understanding  that  the  mode  of  subscription  did 
not  imply  strict  uniformity  of  vieivs.^'  The  character  of  this  Journal  is 
such  as  to  require  a  consideration  of  what  is  here  advanced.  The  pas- 
sage quoted  is  the  mere  opinion  of  one  man,  or  at  most  of  a  very  lew. 


15 

superintending  a  periodical  at  a  time  calculated  to  lull  vigilance.    Instead 
of  receiving  the  sanction  of  public  opinion,  it  was   met  by  general  disap- 
probation, as  openino'   a   door  for   mischievous   innovators  to  intrude 
themselves  nnawares.     That  the   understanding,  here  gratuitously  pro- 
claimed as  universal,  might  have  existed  in  the  minds  of  a  few  obstinate 
sticl<lers  for  opinion  in  that  large  conclave  which  formed  the  Confession, 
at  Westminster,  and  adopted  it   in  this  country,  may  be  supposed  ;  but 
that  such  was  the  designed  and  approved  import  of  the  pledge  and  sig- 
nature, to  be  required  in  all  after-time,  is  really  too  romantic  to  be  for  a 
moment  admitted.     Who  does  not  see — that  in  this  case  our  bond  of 
union  must  immediately  have    proved  a  rope  of  sand — our   beautiful 
system,  a  promiscuous  heap  of  fragments — and  the  Church,  not  a  glo- 
rious buUdino;,~Jilhj  framed  and  compacted  together,  but  a  heterogeneous 
image  of  gold  and   silver,  brass  and  iron  !     The  sequel  of  this  extract 
from  the  Repertory  is  still  more  revolting,  as  it  really  appears  to  concede 
every  thing  which  the  direst  foes  of  our  system  are  struggling  for — 
the  right  of  adopting  her  standards  for  doctrine,  the   very  evasion  prac- 
tised by  Mr.  B. — "  The  very  terms,  '  system  of  doctrines,'  conveys  a 
definite  idea,  the  idea  of  a  regular  series  of  connected  opinions  having  a 
natural  relation  and  constituting  o7ie  whole.      'J'hese  doctrines  are  clearly 
expressed ;  such  as  the  doctrine  of  the   Trinity — the   incarnation  and 
supreme  deity  of  Christ — the  foil,  and  original  sin — atonement — ^justi- 
fication by  faith.     With  respect  to  each  of  these  several  points  there  are, 
and  maij  safely  be,  various  modes  of  statement  and  explanation,  consistent 
with  their  sincere   reception.'^     In  connexion  with   this,  the  writer  asks, 
"  How  is  the  subscription,  or  assent  to  our  standards,  to  be  interpreted  1 — 
or,  with  what  degree  of  strictness  is  the  phrase  '  system  of  doctrines,'  as 
it  occurs  in  the  ordination  service,  to  be  explained  ] — who  is  to  judge 
whether  an  explanation  does,  or  does  not,  interfere  with  what  is  essential 
to  a  particular  doctrine?    We  answer,  in  the  first  place,  this  is  a  question 
for  every  man  to  answer."     The  writer's  remarks  too  much  lavour  the 
supposition  that  the  main  force  of  our  ordination  promise  falls  upon  the 
words  "  system  of  doctrines."     As  this  is  deeply  interesting,  let  us  ex- 
amine it.     "  Do  you  sincerely  receive  and    adopt   the   Confession    of 
Faith,  of  this  Church,  as  containing  the  system  of  doctrines  taught  in  the 
Holy   Scriptures'?"     Now,  according  to  the  apparent  meaning  of  the 
Repertory,  the  candidate  primarily  and   principally  receives  and  adopts 
"  the  system  of  doctrine.''    We  ask — what  is  the  particular  form  and  cha- 
racter of  these  doctrines?     The  writer's  answer  is — "This  is  a  question 
for  every  man  to  answer"  as  he  may  please.     If  so,  the  terms  "  Confes- 
sion of  Faith  of  this  Church,"  might  as  well  be  expunged  altogether. 
But  we  apprehend  this  to  be  an  entirely  erroneous  construction  of  the 
whole  article.     Examine  the  question  proposed — "  Do  you  sincerely 
receive  and   adopt" — what? — "the  system  of  doctrines  ?"     No — "the 
Confession  of  Faith  of  this  Church."     This  is  the  very  gist  of  the  ques- 
tion, and  here  rests  the  main  force  of  the  obligation.     Why  receive  "  the 
Confession  of  Faith  ?"  because  we  believe  it  "  contains  the  system  of 
doctrines  taught  in  the   Holy   Scriptures."      Now,  suppose  any  man 
should  insist  that  this  Confession  docs  not  contain  the  doctrines  of  the 


16 

Sacred  Scriptures  ;  it  is  plain  he  cannot  be  an  honest  Piesbyterian  ;  for 
this  point  is  settled  by  our  form  of  induction  into  the  Church,  and  every 
sincere  signer  professes  his  confirmed  belief  in  this  principle.  There 
were,  doubtless,  present  to  the  minds  of  the  framers  of  our  Confession 
many  systems  of  doctrine,  and  there  exist  still  many  forms  of  Faith,  at 
war  with  each  other,  all  represented  by  their  respective  advocates  to  be 
embraced  by  the  Holy  Scriptures.  Our  Confession  makes  its  selection 
and  exhibits  its  choice,  to  the  exclusion  of  every  opposing  form  of  words, 
in  distinct  and  permanent  traits  ;  and  every  honest  receiver  yields  and 
records  his  unqualified  and  unwavering  assent  to  it.  Does  any  man 
inquire  what  the  doctrinal  system  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  is  1  We 
refer  him — not  to  the  evasive  speculations  or  dubious  answers  of  others — 
but  directly  to  "  the  Confession  of  Faith,"  which  the  book  describes  as 
containing  this  system.  We  tell  the  inquirer  the  very  object  of  the 
Confession  was  to  prevent  private  and  devious  explanation  ;  to  distin- 
guish our  system  from  all  opposing  systems ;  to  prevent  any  mistake  or 
confusion  among  ourselves  respecting  the  real  character  and  import  of 
our  doctrines.  Admitting  the  right  of  private  explanation  appears  to  us 
hke  a  palpable  violation  of  reason ;  the  same  as  to  say,  here  is  a  rule  of 
faith  or  law  of  the  Church,  which  does  not  require  what  it  does  require ; 
which  is  absurd.  And,  under  another  view  of  the  subject,  making  an 
indefinite  grant  of  the  right  of  private  construction,  necessarily  implies 
that  the  exercise  of  this  right  may  become  universal  ;  which  assuredly 
involves  the  idea  of  total  destruction  to  the  system. 

We  consider  the  statement,  that  with  respect  to  each  of  the  several 
points,  there  are  and  may  sajely  be,  various  modes  of  statement  and  ex- 
planation consistent  with  their  sincere  reception,  as  liable  to  abuse  infi- 
nitely beyond  what  we  suppose  the  writer  apprehended.  To  the  general 
proposition,  ab.stractly  stated,  that  evangelical  doctrines  are,  in  some 
particulars,  to  a  limited  extent  susceptible  of  various  modes  of  explana- 
tion not  inconsistent  with  their  honest  reception,  we  are  not  disposed  to 
object.  But  in  an  ecclesiastical  community,  constituted  on  the  very 
cardinal  principle  of  coincidence  or  uniformity,  giving  to  every  member 
an  unlimited  right  to  explain  or  modify  the  fundamental  doctrines  of  the 
system  to  suit  his  own  capricious  views,  is  a  very  different  thing,  and 
must  become  the  sure  means  of  undermining  piecemeal  the  whole  fabric, 
and  making  it  altogether  "  another  Gospel  than  that  we  have  received.^' 
That  is  to  say,  while  there  may  exist,  to  a  limited  degree,  diversities  of 
statement  and  explanation  respecting  fundamental  truth,  consistent  with 
its  honest  reception — there  are  multitudinous  forms  of  thought  and 
schemes  of  speculation  much  more  likely  to  be  embraced  than  the  sim- 
ple truth,  not  only  inconsistent  with  pure  Gospel  doctrine,  but  hostile  to 
its  very  nature  and  incompatible  with  its  existence.  Now,  if  you  open  a 
door  to  admit  the  former  class  of  explanations,  you  cannot  exclude  the 
latter.  The  panacea  and  the  poison  will  flow  in  at  the  same  sluice. 
There  must  be  a  guard  set  at  the  entrance  ! 

Our  meaning  may  be  appositely  illustrated  in  a  few  particulars  from 
the  case  now  pending.  Mr.  Barnes  has  subscribed  to  the  doctrine  of 
the  "  fall  and  original  sin."    How  does  he  explain  it  1    "  ^11  sin  is  volun- 


17 

iary  /"  of  course,  there  is  no  corruption  of  nature  nor  guilt  till  moral 
agency  commences.  "  Sinners  have  no  federal  relation  to  Adam,  and 
are  not  answerable  for  his  guilt."  "  The  notion  of  imputation  is  an  in- 
vention of  modern  times."  As  this  doctrine  is  explained  by  Mr.  B., 
men  have  no  sin  till  they  create  it  by  actual  transgression.  "  It  is  a 
result  secured  by  bad  conduct — just  as  the  drunkard  becomes  such  and 
ruins  his  family  by  bad  habits."  Now,  is  this  explanation  consistent  with 
an  honest  reception  of  either  the  Bible  or  the  Confession  of  Faith?  We 
think  far  otherwise. 

Again  :  Mr.  B.  holds  the  doctrine  of  Atonement.  Now  for  his  ex- 
planation of  this  vital  truth  : — "  The  sin  of  Adam  and  his  seed  was  not 
imputed  to  Ciirisl,  and  he  punished  on  account  of  it."  Of  course,  he 
asserts  "  Christ  did  not  endure  the  precise  penalty  of  the  law,"  nor  make 
certain  the  salvation  of  any  one.  What  then  did  he  do  that  resembles 
the  work  of  atonement?  Mr.  B.  does  not  inform  us.  As  Christ  had 
no  sin  himself,  and  was  not  charged  with  the  sin  of  others,  he  must  have 
suffered  as  an  innocent  person,  to  make  an  exhibition  of  some  kind,  and 
this  is  Mr.  B.'s  view,  to  satisfy  public  justice,  the  ends  of  the  Divine 
government ;  but  without  real  expiation  or  purchase  at  all !  And  yet  he 
very  gravely  talks  about  the  atonement. 

Once  more  :  Mr.  B.  holds  to  justification  hij  faith.  His  explanation, 
so  far  as  it  goes,  completely  removes  the  true  doctrine  on  this  funda- 
mental point  out  of  the  world.  Having  discarded  the  principle  of  impu- 
tation, which  runs  through  the  whole  Bible,  and  is  so  strikingly  prominent 
in  our  Confession,  of  course  neither  the  person,  nor  the  work,  or 
righteousness  of  Christ,  has  any  thing  to  do  with  the  sinner's  justification. 
The  old  doctrine,  on  which  we  have  been  accustomed  to  repose  our 
eternal  hopes  of  justification  through  Christ's  righteousness  imputed  to 
the  sinner  and  received  by  faith  of  God,  is  completely  set  aside  as  a 
stale  error,  or,  more  absurdly,  as  a  modern  invention  ;  and  ils  place  is 
supplied,  in  Mr.  B.'s  explanation,  by  an  attempt  to  make  this  infinitely 
important  matter,  justification  before  God,  depend  upon  a  blind  mystical 
faith  Itself,  or  to  resolve  it  into  simple  pardon  for  sin.  Thus  the  pecu- 
liar doctrines  which  form  the  basis  of  the  glorious  Gospel  may  be  ex- 
plained away,  and  enveloped  in  impenetrable  and  cheerless  clouds. 

If,  then,  the  statement  of  the  Repertory  is  to  stand  unqualified,  every 
one  must  perceive  that  there  can  be  no  safety  for  the  purity  of  our 
Church  even  an  hour.  Now,  the  correct  understanding  of  this  subject, 
and  the  safe  practice  in  licensing  candidates,  in  ordaining  or  receiving 
members,  we  apprehend  to  be  this  : — The  great  doctrines,  in  their  genu- 
ine nature  and  spirit  as  well  as  systematic  connexion,  must  be  honestly 
received  as  generally  expounded  by  the  orthodox  and  evangelic ;  and 
the  explanation,  so  far  as  it  goes,  under  each  particular  in  the  Confession 
of  Faith,  candidly  and  sincerely  embraced,  in  its  known  and  established 
import,  as  decisive.  Chasms  not  filled  up,  or  new  scruples  which  may 
arise,  cannot  be  left  to  the  discretion  or  caprice  of  individuals  ;  but  must 
be  referred,  for  examination  and  decision,  to  the  competent  authority. 

To  our  respected  brethren  of  the  Repertory,  occupying  the  highly 
responsible  station  of  watchmen  on  the  walls  of  Zion,  we  would  affec- 


18 

tionately  recommend  more  caution  in  guarding  those  points  against 
which  the  adversary  are  levelUng  all  their  battering  rams  to  force  a  pas- 
sage for  the  Trojan  horse !  But  our  caution  scarcely  seems  to  be 
needed  by  them ;  for,  after  seeming  to  surrender  to  the  enemy  all  that 
he  demands,  before  they  finish  the  paragraph  they  retract  the  fatal  grant, 
and  close  the  breach  against  his  unholy  approach.  "  The  Presbyteiy,'' 
say  they,  "  has  a  right  of  judgment  in  all  such  cases.  It  is  their  busi- 
ness to  decide  the  very  point,  whether  the  candidate  believe  or  not,  the 
doctrines  of  our  standards  ;  and  they  are  under  the  most  solemn  en- 
gagements to  God  and  the  brethren  to  do  this  honestly —  and  here  the 
matter  must  be  left." 

It  is  not  the  least  objection  to  Mr.  Barnes's  book,  that  he  "has  made 
it  an  object  to  avoid  the  use  of  some  technical  words  which  have  been 
long  employed  in  theology,  and  which  have  been  deemed  valuable,  in 
the  interpretation  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans."  Every  science, 
to  be  correctly  understood  and  faithfully  preserved,  requires  that  very 
guard  which  Mr.  B.  has  so  carefully  rejected.  It  is  by  technical  phra- 
seology, specifically  defined  and  appropriately  employed,  that  correct 
ideas,  on  difficult  points,  are  best  secured  and  perpetuated.  Hence  we 
find  that  innovators  and  corruptors  in  theology  always  commence  dilapi- 
dation at  this  point.  They  reject  familiar  technicalities,  feigning 
improvement  and  greater  simplicity  ;  but  really  to  get  clear  of  old  land- 
marks, obstinate  impediments  in  the  way  of  error,  having  stood  for  ages 
and  become  familiar  and  venerable  to  every  observer :  the  real  object  is 
to  pass  by  the  truths  which  lie  entrenched  behind  these  constitutional 
barriers.  The  artful  and  designing  do  not  like  frequented  paths  ;  they 
select  neio  tvays ;  they  invent  new  terms,  obscure  and  ambiguous,  to 
obtain  facilities  for  evasion  and  dispute.  The  Catechisms  of  our  Church 
are  valuable  chiefly  for  their  concise,  clear,  common-place  expressions 
and  technical  terms  ;  so  admirably  chosen,  so  simple,  definite  and  signi- 
ficant, that  no  improvement  can  be  grafted  upon  them,  and  no  departure 
from  them  safely  made.  Only  impress  these  inexpressibly  precious 
summaries  of  Gospel  truth,  just  as  they  stand,  with  suitable  remarks  and 
explanations,  upon  a  generation  of  minds,  and  the  impression  will  defy 
the  arts  of  deceivers.  But,  on  many  cardinal  points,  change  the  dress 
of  the  idea— remove  the  technical  guard  of  the  doctrines — and  security 
for  the  truth  is  in  a  great  measure  taken  away.  This  is  especially  true 
in  regard  to  the  young,  for  whom,  Mr.  B.  tells  us,  he  particularly  wrote. 
They  are,  usually,  easy  vicdius  of  seducing  arts.  His  book  may,  indeed, 
infect  many  precious  companies ;  and  even  generafions  of  youth  may, 
unsuspectingly,  imbibe  thi;  fatal  poison.  Thus  the  Jesuits  made  their 
first  and  most  successful  attempts  upon  the  young  in  schools  and  colleges 
of  learning.  This  is  the  system  of  the  Roman  Catholics  in  the  present 
day  ;  and  the  disorganizers  in  the  Presbyterian  Church  are  employing  the 
same  means  with  all  their  zeal. 

The  new  edition  of  his  Notes,  which  Mr.  B.  in  now  publishing,  fur- 
nishes decisive  evidence  of  his  incorrigibleness  in  error.  This  work  is 
now  a  favorite  instrument,  in  the  hands  of  his  partisans,  for  the  propaga- 
tion of  his  dangerous  opinions.     After  declaring  unequivocally,  that  he 


19 

does  not  wish  it  to  be  understood  that  he  has  altered  or  retracted  a  single 
sentiment,  all  his  promises  to  remove  difficulties  and  grounds  of  offence 
by  corrections  and  explanations  must  prove  delusive.  His  attempt  to 
carry  on  this  farce,  by  restoring,  perhaps  in  a  few  unimportant  instances, 
the  rejected  technicalities,  by  glossing  with  a  more  imposing  lure 
his  anti-evangelic  notions,  by  change  of  words  without  change  of  sense, 
must  be  regarded  as  dust  thrown  into  the  eyes  of  the  reader  ;  a  specious 
movement,  the  more  easily  and  effectually  to  palm  his  spurious  dogmas 
upon  the  Church  and  to  escape  her  censures.  This  is  the  artifice  which 
has  been  recently  practised  with  great  success  by  the  arrh  deceiver  of 
the  West.  As  a  last  resort,  when  other  evasive  and  deceptive  expedients 
fail,  the  imposing  policy  of  attempting  to  amalgamate  truth  and  error  ia 
simultaneously  embraced  West  and  East  of  the  mountains.  God  grant 
that  this  Heresiarchal  cunning  may  fail  of  its  object  1 

Thus,  it  seems  to  us,  Mr.  Barnes's  own  testimony,  candidly  estimated, 
is  sufficient  to  place  him  before  the  Church  in  a  predicament  as  little  to 
be  envied  as  any  that  can  be  conceived.  And  when  the  conduct  of  his 
advocates  is  viewed  in  connexion  with  his  public  declarations  and  acts,  a 
fixed  purpose  is  clearly  developed  by  them  to  evade  honest  investigation 
and  constitutional  trial  altogether.  No  matter  who  is  the  accused,  who 
the  prosecutor,  or  what  the  charge  ;  they  have  combined  to  trample  the 
constitution  under  their  feet,  and  to  nullify  all  its  salutary  provisions. 

In  support  of  these  assertions  we  turn  to  the  acts  of  the  General  Assem- 
bly. The  appeal  and  complaint  of  Mr,  B.  and  his  associates  in  May, 
1834,  against  the  proceedings  of  the  Philadelphia  Presbytery  and  Synod,  in 
regard  to  the  Sermon  on  ike  Way  of  Salvation,  as  has  been  stated,  resulted 
in  the  formation  of  the  second  Presbytery,  on  affinity  principles,  in  direct 
violation  of  the  letter  and  spirit  of  the  constitution,  and  for  the  avowed 
purpose  of  protecting  Mr.  B.  and  His  party.  The  V^estern  Memorial 
solemnly  implored  that  Assembly  to  decide  upon  sundry  spurious  publi- 
cations then  named,  and  among  them  that  sermon  of  Mr.  B.  After 
rebuking  the  memorialists,  and  providing  him  a  secure  retreat,  that  Assem- 
bly tantalize  the  Church  by  the  following  resolution  : — "  That  in  the 
opinion  of  this  Assembly,  to  take  up  and  try  and  condemn  any  printed 
publication  as  heretical  and  dangerous,  is  equivalent  to  condemning  the 
author  as  heretical : — that  to  condemn  heresy  in  the  abstract  cannot  be 
understood  as  the  purpose  of  such  trial : — that  the  results  of  such  trial 
are  to  bear  upon  and  seriously  afiect  the  standing  of  the  author  : — and 
that  the  fair  and  unquestionable  mode  of  procedure  is,  if  the  author  be 
alive,  and  known  to  be  of  our  communion,  to  institute  process  against 
him,  and  give  a  fair  and  constitutional  trial.'"  The  insincerity  and 
absurdity  of  the  opinion  here  expressed  by  the  affinity  members  of  that 
body,  have  been  abundantly  exposed  in  public  discussions  on  that  sub- 
ject, and  the  resolution  was  solemnly  rescinded  by  the  Assembly  of  1835. 
But  we  recur  to  this  whole  transaction  to  unravel  the  corrupt  designs  of 
Mr.  B.  and  his  adherents.  Their  language  in  1834  was,  "  Don't  con- 
demn the  book — take  its  author;  don't  touch  heresy  in  the  abstract,  table 
charges  against  its  promulgator  !"  The  book  was  then,  in  substance, 
under  process  ;  hence  such  language  was  convenient,  however  absurd! 


20 

The  design  of  the  combination  was  obvious — to  defeat  investigation  and 
prevent  decision  on  false  doctrines  altogether.  Hence  the  accompany- 
ing resolution  passed  by  that  Assembly  : — "  That  ministers  dismissed 
in  good  standing  by  sister  Presbyteries  should  be  received  by  the  Pres- 
byteries which  they  are  dismissed  to  join,  upon  the  credii  of  their  testimo- 
nials !"  Here  is  a  glaring  attempt  artfully  to  open  free  course  for  the 
itinerant  propagators  of  heresy  by  paralysing  the  power  of  Presbyteries, 
which  are  the  original,  sovereign,  and  divinely  constituted  guardians  of 
the  Church's  purity.  Who  can  be  so  blinded  by  prejudice  as  not  to  see 
that  this  was  a  mere  artifice  to  prevent  inquiry  into  their  theological 
tenets,  and  to  promote  their  corrupt  designs  !  !  Now,  they  supposed 
that  Mr.  B.  was  safe  ;  that  no  member  of  his  own  affinity  Presbytery 
would  assail  him  ;  that  none  of  any  other  Presbytery,  of  sufficient  love 
to  the  truth  and  devotion  to  the  cause  of  God  and  his  church  to  encounter 
this  painful  service,  could  be  found.  Relying  upon  the  security  of  his 
position,  and  in  defiance  of  the  orthodox  individuals  and  bodies  around 
him,  who  lifted  their  warning  and  expostulating  voice,  Mr.  B.,  encou- 
raged by  his  party,  goes  on  to  pubhsh  more  and  more  extensively  his 
unsound  and  injurious  speculations,  and  to  circulate  them,  by  his  agents, 
through  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land.  His  book  is  regarded  as  a 
public  nuisance,  and  the  author  as  a  source  of  moral  pestilence.  The 
work  of  contamination,  on  the  one  hand,  is  pressed  with  unsparing  zeal ; 
the  cr]j  of  heresy,  on  the  other,  deeply  agitating  the  Church,  fills  the  land. 
What,  dien,  is  to  be  done?  Is  there  no  remedy  for  this  distracting  and 
destroying  process  ?  The  words  of  the  party  advocating  Mr.  B.  and 
patronizing  his  book,  are,  "  If  the  author  be  alive,  and  known  to  be  of 
our  communion^  institiite  process  against  him!"  The  leaders  in  that 
party  often  publicly  give  the  challenge — "  Don't  take  the  book,  prosecute 
the  author  .'"  Now  the  author  is  arraigned,  behold  what  a  cry  ;  it  dis- 
turbs my  peace,  it  infringes  liberty  of  speech,  rights  of  conscience, 
interrupts  my  work,  injures  the  character  of  my  book,  and,  what  is  worse, 
"  the  hope  of  our  gains  is  gone  !"*  Alas,  what  a  catastrophe  !  Such 
exclamations  are  very  natural,  and  very  common  in  such  cases.  In 
prosecuting  offenders,  it  is  not  easy  to  adapt  the  process  to  their  taste  ; 
and  no  fiction  ever  exhibited,  more  clearly,  fixed  determination  to  escape 
the  reign  of  lau',  either  by  open  resistance  or  dishonest  evasion. 

We  find  much  serious  cause  to  be  dissatisfied  with  Mr.  Barnes's  treat- 
ment of  Dr.  Junkin.  His  attempt  to  resolve  his  conduct  into  selfish, 
suspicious,  and  unhallowed  mofives,  cannot  fail  to  shock  every  impartial 
and  honourable  mind,  "  To  Dr.  Junkin  I  had  done  no  injury,  I  had  made 
no  allusion  ;  his  opinions  I  had  not  attacked  ;  nor  in  the  book  on  which 
the  charges  are  based,  have  I  made  the  remotest  allusion  to  him  or  his 
doctrines."  Strange  indeed  !  Has  then  Mr.  B.  the  weakness  to  infimate, 
or  suppose,  that  process  can  be  properly  instituted  or  reasonably  expected 
against  a  minister  extensively  charged  with  heresy — only  where  personal 
offence  has  been  given — where  passion  has  been  provoked  and  is  in  exer- 
cise ?  Can  his  large  liberality  and  abounding  charity  conceive  and  ad- 
mit of  no  higher,  no  holier  motive,  in  this  solemn  and  eventful  measure  1 

*  Acts  16.  19. 


21 

Is  then  the  love  of  Christ,  the  love  of  his  pure  gospel,  the  love  of  his 
Church,  the  love  of  souls,  to  him  a  strange  passion  1  Or  does  it 
glow  exclusively  in  his  own  breast  ?  Judge  ye  !  What  shall  we  say 
of  the  effort  he  makes  to  hold  up  Dr.  J.  to  ridicule  and  reproach  as  a 
self-constituted  guardian  of  the  orthodoxy  and  peace  of  the  Church? 
How  unkind  and  unchristian  are  such  insinuations !  The  public  are  not 
so  obtuse  as  to  mistake  the  meaning.  The  heretic  must  go  free  at  all 
events,  and  the  prosecutor  become  a  victim  of  party  combination  and 
violence.  Even  the  College  of  Lafayette,  which  belongs  to  the  cause  of 
science  and  of  truth,  is  not  sacred  if  it  come  in  the  way  of  such  party 
rancor.  Not  only  the  President,  but  the  important  and  growing  institution 
under  his  care,  must  be  swept  away  by  this  proscriptive  besom.  And 
what  has  excited  this  exterminating  spirit?  Why —  Dr.  Junkin's  simply 
proposing,  in  a  manner  which  all  pronounce  necessary,  and  regular,  and 
christian,  after  the  whole  Church  had  been  invited  by  Act  of  the  General 
Assembly  to  this  issue,  proposing  to  show  according  to  the  Book,  that  the 
Notes  on  the  Romans  contain  doctrines  opposed  to  our  standards.  If 
innocent  and  nothing  to  fear,  why  this  asperity  and  rage  !  Mr.  B.  says — 
"  In  my  own  Presbytery  I  was  m  good  standing."  True — because  the 
whole  body,  one  minister*  only  excepted,  it  is  believed,  embraced  the 
same  heresies.  But,  had  Mr.  B.  no  wish  to  stand  well  in  the  Church  at 
large?  Trial  is  the  only  method  of  removing  suspicions.  This,  neither 
Mr.  B.  nor  his  associates  are  prepared  for.  Hence  this  outrageous  attack"!" 
upon  a  Christian  minister,  who  undertakes  an  arduous  public  service,  as 
we  believe,  from  profound  devotedness  to  duty,  and  exercising  great  self- 
denial — not  courting  distinction — not  following  the  impulses  of  an  irre- 
gular and  excited  mind — not  cherishing  a  lofty  pride  or  unhallowed  ambi- 
tion, as  is  cruelly  insinuated  in  the  defence — but  at  the  often  repeated 
challenge  of  the  aggressing  faction,  and  on  the  suggestion  and  with  the 
approbation  of  many  of  the  advocates  of  truth  and  purity  in  the  Presby- 
terian body.  In  our  Saviour's  words,  the  plain  inference  is — "  Every  one 
that  doeth  evil  hateth  the  light,  neither  cometh  to  the  light,  lest  his  deeds 
should  be  reproved." 

The  exculpatory  sentence  of  the  second  Presbytery  of  Philadelphia 
in  Mr.  B.'s  case,  was  such  as  the  public  anticipated,  knowing  it  to  be 
deeply  tinctured  with  the  same  false  doctrines.     The  only  fact,  therefore, 

*  Rev.  Henry  A.  Boardman,  whose  eloquent  and  able  support  of  Dr.  J.  has  secured 
the  respect  and  confidencs  of  all  who  know  him. 

t  That  this  assault  upon  Dr.  Junkin  and  Lafayette  College  is  the  result  of  combina- 
tion, cannot  be  doubted.  The  false  statement  recently  employed  by  the  Editor  of  the 
Evangehst,  New-York,  to  injure  South  Hanover  College,  has  been  duly  exposed,  by  its 
venerable  President,  Dr.  Blythe,  to  that  just  reprobation  and  contempt  which  an  out- 
raged and  indignant  public  had  long  before  pronounced  upon  its  author.  We  are  truly 
mortified  at  finding  Dr.  Spring  in  the  same  spirit,  lending  himself  to  prejudice  the 
infant  Seminary,  of  so  much  promise,  under  Dr.  Junkin's  care.  We  mention  the  fact, 
to  show  concert,  and  to  give  the  attempt  publicity.  Because  Dr.  J.  consented  to  conduct 
the  process  for  heresy  against  Mr.  B.,  Dr.  Spring  withdraws  his  name  even  from  a 
private  paper  recommending  Lafayette  College !  Let  the  Church  and  our  country  look 
at  this  !  Thus  all  the  literary  institutions  in  our  land,  in  the  hands  of  orthodox  men, 
are  marked  out  as  victims  of  this  rapacious  spirit !  What  then  is  to  be  the  fate  of  their 
Theological  Schools  should  this  faction  acquire  the  ascendency  ? 


established  by  the  trial  before  them,  is,  that  the  court  are  in  the  same  con- 
demnation with  their  protege,  with  this  additional  enormity,  that  to  previous 
individual  corruption  they  have  added  the  guilt  of  public  official  perfidy  as 
guardians  of  the  Church.  Their  pertinacious  determination  to  sustain  him, 
whatever  else  is  sacrificed,  becomes  more  and  more  manifest  the  farther 
we  proceed  in  this  exposition.  After  Dr.  Junkin's  appeal  was  taken,  as  is 
now  evident,  with  a  full  understanding  to  the  Synod  of  Philadelphia,  a 
new  and  dark  drama  was  opened  in  the  inferior  judicature — a  drama  which, 
for  complicate  irregularity  and  mischief,  and  ultimately  for  aggravated 
vexatiousness  and  contumacy,  has  probably  never  been  surpassed  in  the 
history  of  our  Church.  The  first  leading  object  of  the  combination  against 
discipline  was,  to  obtain  a  victory  in  the  Synod.  If  unsucessful  in  that, 
a  sinister  resort  was  secretly  planned  and  reserved,  if  possible,  to  arrest 
the  course  of  justice.  The  particulars  of  this  statement  are  supported  by 
authentic  public  documents  ;  and  the  part  we  now  enter  upon,  rests  almost 
entirely  for  its  accuracy  upon  the  published  minutes  of  the  Synod  of  Phi- 
ladelphia. 

To  secure  a  majority  in  the  Synod,  we  repeat  it,  was  the  first  hope,  in 
the  affinity  Presbyteries,  within  its  bounds.  Hence  the  work  was,  imme- 
diately, most  industriously  commenced,  of  forming  new  congregations, 
choosing  elders,  licensing  candidates,  and  ordaining  instruments  to  suit 
their  purpose  without  regard  to  constitutional  rules  or  limits,  and  to  the 
great  annoyance  of  sound  Presbyteries  lying  contiguous  to  them  on  every 
side.  All  these  preparatory  operations  were  conducted  on  the  principle, 
that  the  legislation  of  the  last  Assembly  was  constitutional  and  with- 
out a  flaw.  But  as  soon  as  the  decision  of  some  preliminary  questions 
in  the  Synod  disclosed  the  fact,  that  the  party  struggling  to  sustain  Mr. 
B.  were  in  the  minority,  the  expedients  of  denying  the  jurisdiction  of 
the  Synod,  charging  the  Assembly  with  defect  in  legislation,  and  sup- 
pressing the  documents  and  evidence  in  the  case,  were  embraced  as  an 
only  alternative  to  stop  the  wheels  of  discipline.  Those  not  already 
acquainted  with  these  transactions  will  doubtless  pause  here,  with  strong 
emotions  of  surprise  and  disgust !  It  is  truly  painful  to  record  the  fact, 
that  such  are  the  measures  by  which  all  the  dearest  interests  of  our 
Church  are  reduced  to  peril !  It  will  be  admitted  by  all,  that  falsification 
of  record,  or  entire  suppression  of  documents  in  such  a  case,  to  rescue 
an  accused  individual  from  farther  process  of  law  finds  few  parallels, 
even  in  the  proceedings  of  our  most  corrupt  civil  courts  ;  in  the  his- 
tory of  our  ecclesiastical  judiciary  it  stands  alone.  Such  conduct, 
in  a  judicatory  of  Jesus  Christ,  imposes  a  stigma  upon  the  Christian 
name;  and  may  justly  occasion  her  very  ministers- to  be  held  up  for 
derision  and  contempt  by  a  profane  and  blaspheming  world. 

The  most  truly  painful  part  of  the  procedure  is  to  be  found  in  Mr.  B.'s 
equivocating  and  uncandid  course.  Men  of  business  in  the  Church, 
who  understand  the  powers  of  Presbytery,  the  rights  of  individual  mem- 
bers, and  the  forms  of  process,  are  not  to  be  misled  by  specious  pre- 
tence. In  the  whole  of  that  transaction  before  the  Synod,  Mr.  Barnes 
was  his  own  man — he  had  his  course  under  his  own  control — he  had  the 
suppressed  documents  at  his  own  disposal.     He  did  not  appear  before 


23 

the  Synod  at  their  repeated  call,  because  he  chose  to  be  amalgamated 
with  his  Presbytery  in  their  crafty  and  corrupt  policy.  He  is  therefore 
pre-eminently  chargeable  with  the  insincerity,  vexatiousness,  and  contu- 
macy, which  have  been  justly  imputed  to  that  body  ;  and  has  unquestion- 
ably, on  a  literal  construction  of  the  constitution,  and  on  principles  both 
of  strict  justice  and  sound  policy,  made  it  optional  with  the  Assembly 
whether  at  all  to  hear  his  appeal. 

His  subsequent  attempts,  by  artful  address,  to  awaken  popular  sympathy 
in  his  favor,  especially  as  it  comes  enforced  by  the  plausible  charge  of 
unconstitutionaUty  in  the  proceedings  of  the  Synod,  strongly  excites 
suspicions  Avhich  we  reluctantly  entertain.  As  this  appearance  of  uncon- 
stitutionality, artfully  alleged  in  his  appeal  to  the  public,  was  produced, 
evidently,  by  his  own  deliberate  and  refractory  refusal  to  stand  trial  in  the 
Synod,  we  are  brought  irresistibly  to  the  conclusion  that  his  declining 
its  jurisdiction  was  a  mere  artifice  to  provide,  indirectly,  this  popular 
theme  for  his  premeditated  appeal  to  public  opinion.  Relying  upon  this 
fictitious  plea,  in  connexion  with  many  distorted  and  imposing  statements, 
his  friends — combined  with  him  to  carry  through  this  flagrant  organized 
resistance  to  constituted  authority — address  themselves  to  the  blind  and 
capricious  sympathies  of  their  true  yoke-fellows  in  the  cause  of  error,  and 
to  the  unhallowed  passions  of  the  inflammable  multitude. 

Why  were  not  the  transactions  of  the  Synod  of  Philadelphia  left  to  the 
deliberate  and  unbiassed  judgment  of  the  Church  in  her  constitutional 
tribunals  1  No  light  on  the  subjects  involved  can  be  obtained  from  the 
common  people.  Even  the  best  informed  part  of  society  are  very  incom- 
petent judges  of  these  matters.  Is  it  not  always  found  that  the  popular 
judgment  is  given,  not  upon  the  merits  of  the  real  question  involved,  but 
upon  points  far  removed  from  it  1  Indeed,  the  object  of  this  resort  is, 
not  to  elicit  righteous  judgment,  but  to  bury  up  the  real  subject  in  con- 
troversy;  to  intoxicate  the  pubhc  mind  by  false,  but  captivating  views  of 
it ;  to  excite  unhallowed  passion  or  sympathy,  in  order  to  secure  errone- 
ous decision. 

Our  meaning  maybe  better  illustrated  by  referring  to  facts  in  the  present 
case.  The  charge  is  heresy — false  doctrine,  dishonouring  to  God  and 
dangerous  to  souls.  The  popular  appeal  of  Mr.  B.  and  his  associates  is 
founded  on  his  ministerial  qualifications,  pastoral  fidelity,  his  studies,  his 
labors,  his  private  character,  his  respectable  station,  the  wealth  of  his 
people,  their  personal  attachment,  the  hatred,  the  injustice,  the  crueltxj,  of 
the  prosecutor.  Now,  what  have  all  these  things  to  do  with  the  real 
question  before  us?  This  declamation  is  evidently  designed  to  perplex 
and  obscure  the  subject  of  investigation ;  to  prejudice  and  mislead  the 
public.  The  point  at  issue  is  simply  this  : — Is  Mr.  Barnes  guilty  of 
heresy  or  not?  No  matter  what  his  character  and  conduct  in  other 
respects.  These  are  distinct  things,  not  at  all  connected  with  the  proper 
inquiry.  Is  it  any  palliation  for  a  heretic  that  he  is  learned,  eloquent, 
artful,  and^zealous,  in  spreading  his  corrupt  opinions?  On  the  contrary, 
is  he  not  the  more  dangerous,  the  more  injurious,  the  more  criminal  ? 
and  are  not  all  honest  and  good  men  the  more  obligated  to  come  forward 
to  detect  him  and  arrest  his  desolating  career  ?     ^Vhat  did  the  inspired 


writer  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Romans  say  :  "  There  be  some  that  trouble  you, 
and  would  pervert  the  Gospel  of  Christ ;  but  though  tt'e,  or  fl?t  angel  from 
heaven,  preach  amj  other  Gospel  unto  you — lei  him  be  accursed  .'" — Gal. 
i.  8.  Prominence  of  character,  then,  in  the  Divine  account,  forms  no 
palliation  for  heresy ;  but  in  proportion  as  it  may  augment  his  capacity 
to  do  evil,  plunges  the  heretical  teacher  into  a  more  aggravated  condem- 
nation. 

Here  let  us  ask,  What  has  been  the  conduct  of  this  combination 
against  the  truth  ever  since  the  adjournment  of  the  Synod  1  Our  large 
cities,  our  country  towns  and  villages,  have  been  deluged  with  their  in- 
flammatory publications.  Most  of  the  Post  Offices  in  our  country  have 
been  made  distributing  points  for  their  uncandid  missiles.  Mr.  Barnes 
himself,  assuming  the  office  of  an  agitator,  has  been  diligently  engaged 
in  travels,  in  speeches,  in  private  interviews,  in  letters,  appeals  and  ad- 
dresses, to  give  effect  to  this  disorganizing  process.  And  among  the 
most  nefarious,  and  hitherto  unheard-of  means  of  corrupting  and  inflam- 
ing the  public  mind.  Congregational  meetings  have  been  held  in  sundry 
places,  combinations  formed,  harangues  delivered,  resolutions  passed, 
recommendations  issued,  and  all  spread  out  before  the  Church  evidently 
to  promote  this  work  of  rebellion.  In  carrying  up  an  appeal,  it  is  an 
established  principle  in  all  courts,  civil  and  sacred,  the  propriety  of  which 
no  sane  man  will  question,  that,  to  obtain  an  impartial  hearing  on  both 
sides  and  an  equitable  decision,  nothing  should  go  before  the  judicatory 
appealed  to  but  the  law  and  the  evidence  on  which  the  judgment  in  the 
lower  court  was  rendered.  And  the  same  principle  will,  of  course,  pre- 
clude the  use  of  all  means  directly  or  indirectly  tending  to  prejudice  and 
corrupt  the  minds  of  those  who  are  to  constitute  the  superior  tribunal. 
We  appeal,  then,  to  the  world — to  the  common  sense,  and  candor,  and 
justice  of  all  rational  beings  ;  and  protest  against  the  ex  parte  statements, 
arts  and  devices,  by  which  the  opposers  of  our  Presbyterian  faith  and 
order  are'  endeavouring  to  corrupt  and  mislead  her  high  court  of  appeals. 

We  ask  the  public,  whom  they  have  addressed,  Why  do  they  take  this 
unfair  and  disorderly  course  1  Does  a  righteous  cause  need  such  un- 
justifiable resorts  ?  Do  the  honest  and  the  pure,  conscious  of  innocence, 
employ  such  methods  to  arrest  inquiry  and  impair  the  channels  of  jus- 
tice? Are  not  such  means,  in  civil  matters,  the  last  resorts  of  knaves 
and  desperadoes,  despairing  of  their  unrighteous  objects  from  the  regular 
and  uncontaminated  tribunals  of  their  country  1  Greece  and  Rome,  in 
the  days  of  their  deepest  moral  defection  and  political  degeneracy,  pre- 
sent no  higher  models  of  systematic  and  combined  organization  against 
established  law  and  salutary  government.  These  are  the  very  arts  and 
efforts  which  designing  demagogues  and  revolutionists  have  ever  em- 
ployed to  pollute  the  public  fountains  of  truth  ;  to  take  the  honest  and 
unsuspecting  people  captive  over  whose  understandings  and  rights  they 
mean  to  tyrannize  ;  to  gratify,  indeed — regardless  alike  of  law,  of  justice, 
and  of  honor — whatever  passion  of  ambition  or  of  envy,  of  error  or  of 
evil,  may  happen  to  predominate  within  them. 

Rely  upon  it!  that  man  and  those  men  who  refuse  to  seek  redress  for 
alleged  grievance  through  the  regular  administration  of  justice,  and  ac- 


26 

cording  to  constitutional  provision — who  appeal  from  the  known  and 
venerated  tribunals  of  justice  and  judgoient,  the  refuge  of  the  injured  and 
innocent,  to  an  irresponsible,  unintelligent,  and  excitable  mass  of  mind, 
with  a  view  to  corrupt  and  control  the  final  decision  of  the  grand  assizes 
of  the  Church — in  the  judgment  of  all  the  enlightened,  discreet,  and 
unprejudiced  of  every  name — proclaim  their  cause  as  desperate — capable 
of  support  only  by  the  vilest  means,  and  themselves  as  lawless  and 
rotten  to  the  core  ! 

After  openly  and  repeatedly  announcing  the  fact,  that  he  entered  the 
ministry  with  reserves  and  exceptions — after  a  laborious  and  protracted 
argument  to  vindicate  his  heretical  sentiments  on  the  assumed  right  of 
construction ;  and  after  boldly  declaring  his  settled  purpose  always  to 
disregard  every  cont'ession  and  formula,  we  are  really  surprised  and 
grieved  to  find  Mr.  B.  adding,  to  the  egregious  mass  of  inconsistencies 
elsewhere  displayed,  the  gross  absuidity  of  an  attempt  to  reconcile  his 
JVoles  with  the  Confession  of  Faith.  His  whole  defence  is  conducted 
on  the  admission,  that  these  discrepancies  exist  as  stated.  Hence  the 
attempt  to  distort  the  nature  and  impair  the  force  of  the  ordination  Vow. 
Hence  also  the  various  excuses  and  pretexts  offered  to  vindicate  the 
errors  alleged  and  their  author.  What  is  the  import  of  the  following  ex- 
tract from  this  defence  1  "  The  question  which  this  Presbytery  is  now 
called  on  to  decide,  is,  whether  the  views  which  are  expressed  in  these 
Notes  are  any  longer  to  be  tolerated  in  the  Presbyterian  Church  in  the 
United  States  ;  whether  a  man  who  held  them  at  the  time  of  his  licensure, 
who  has  held  and  preached  them  for  ten  years,  is  to  be  allowed  peace- 
ably to  hold  them  still ;  or  whether  he  is  to  be  pronounced  heretical  and 
unsound"?"  What  opinions  are  these  here  referred  to  ?  Certainly  not 
any  doctrines  of  the  Confession  of  Faith.  There  is  no  controversy 
about  them.  No  :  they  are  undoubtedly  the  heresies  presented  by  Dr. 
Junkin.  The  whole  charge  is  here,  as  in  other  places,  substantially  ad- 
mhted.  But,  presently,  Mr.  B.'s  courage  fails,  and  he  turns  short  about, 
adding  to  the  guilt  of  acknowledged  error  the  criminality  of  uncandid 
subterfuge,  and  commences  a  Jesuitical  process  to  prove  these  very 
opinions  to  be  the  same  with  those  of  our  standards.  To  such  mon- 
strous absurdities  heresy  never  fails  to  reduce  its  deluded  propagators. 
The  impossibility  of  this  reconciliation  will  appear  from  a  comparison  of 
Dr.  J.'s  argument  with  the  standards  of  the  Church. 

Let  the  public  observe — Mr.  B.  has  brought  upon  himself  all  the  guilt — 
the  charges — the  censures — the  mortification  and  disgrace — and  the 
painful  apprehensions  he  may  suffer,  by  his  rash  and  incorrigible  course. 
He  has  nobody  to  blame  but  himself  and  his  cruel  advisers.  His  plea  for 
suspension  of  process,  or  discharge  from  condemnation,  amounts  to  the 
simple,  modest,  and  reasonable  request,  that  all  the  sworn  friends  of  truth 
and  order  in  our  Church,  who  feel  sacredly  "  bound,  with  zeal  and  fidelity, 
to  maintain  the  truths  of  the  gospel  and  the  purity  and  peace  of  the  Church," 
shall  profanely  violate  their  vows,  and  stand  idly  by,  when  the  Ark  of  the 
law  and  testimony  is  rapaciously  assailed  by  aliens  from  the  common- 
wealth of  Israel  and  strangers  from  our  convenant  and  promise.  What 
renders  his  case  most  desperate  is,  that  his  defence,  now  before  the  public, 

4 


26 

constituted  as  it  is,  contains  from  his  own  hand  the  elements  of  self-des- 
truction. Unless  the  sentiments  it  contains  are  promptly  and  totally  re- 
tracted, and  the  whole  ground  he  there  assumes  for  defence  abandoned 
as  untenable,  that  very  defence  will  prove  a  bill  of  indictment  and  must 
seal  his  fate.  If  the  principles  which  that  defence  avows  are  sanctioned 
in  the  General  Assembly,  the  Presbyterian  Church,  as  established  by  our 
wise  and  venerable  forefathers,  is  that  moment,  and  for  ever  after,  dis- 
solved ;  on  those  principles  no  pure  church  ever  existed,  or  can  exist, 
beneath  the  sun.  So  that  we  have  here  presented  a  bold,  insidious,  and 
determined  assault  upon  the  vital  existence  of  our  sacred  union — an  at- 
tempt, at  a  stroke,  to  sever  the  tie  that  binds  us  in  this  great  Christian  fra- 
ternity— and  then  to  plead  the  profane  dissolution  itself,  as  a  defence  for 
the  enormities  under  process  before  our  sacred  tribunals. 

Our  forrrier  remarks  upon  Mr.  B's  statements  respecting  his  views  of 
the  engagement  made  on  first  assuming  the  sacred  office,  were  intended 
chiefly  to  correct  his  erroneous  and  dangerous  construction  of  that  sacred 
promise  as  a  part  of  our  Church  policy.  We  now  proceed  to  consider 
the  morality  of  Mr.  B's  conduct  in  this  solemn  transaction,  as  developed 
by  himself.  The  subject  is  truly  momentous  and  in)pressive  ;  and  nothing 
but  a  lively  view  of  its  comprehensive  bearing  and  influence,  and  a  so- 
lemn sense  of  duty,  awakened  by  Mr.  B's  alarming  disclosures,  prompts 
us  to  enter  upon  this  solemn  discussion.  We  pity  this  deluded  and  un- 
happy man,  whose  friends,  by  foolish  flattery  and  infatuated  counsel,  have 
brought  him  blindfold  to  the  precipice.  As  the  question  with  us  now,  is 
between  the  Church  of  Christ  and  Albert  Barnes,  we  have  no  alternative  but 
to  proceed  with  the  exposition. 

From  our  view  of  this  subject  in  its  moral  relations,  the  conclusion  is, 
that  Mr.  B's  conduct  involves  an  offence  of  the  greatest  magnitude  and 
guilt.  The  office  of  a  Christian  n;inister  is  the  most  exalted  and  respon- 
sible office  eixsting  in  this  world.  Ministers  are  representatives,  ''  sub- 
delegated  messengers,"  of  the  great  God,  in  his  dij^pensation  of  grace. 
"We  are  ambassadors  of  Christ,"  says  the  great  Apostle;  "We  pray 
you  in  Christ's  stead  ;"  &c.  To  this  high  vocation  are  they  appointed,  and 
the  Presbytery  is  the  divinely  constituted  instruinent  to  clothe  them  with 
its  sacred  functions.  Now,  the  whole  transaction,  in  which  candidates  are 
received,  and  bound,  and  commissioned  to  this  holy  service,  has  ever  been 
considered  as  partaking  the  nature  and  solemnity  oi"  a  formal  oath.  The 
engagement  being  made  primarily  to  God,  from  whom  proceed  the  office 
— the  call  to  it — and  both  the  power  and  form  of  initiation,  every  candidate 
is  justly  conceived  to  make  a  solemn  appeal  to  the  searcher  of  hearts  for 
the  rectitude  and  sincerity  of  his  professions.  Hence  a  violation  of  this 
oath,  in  any  of  its  particulars,  according  to  their  natural,  obvious,  custo- 
mary, and  established  import,  can  justly  be  viewed  no  otherwise  than  as 
an  act  of  perjury  ;  especially  must  this  construction  be  put  upon  the  vio- 
lation, if  the  candidate,  by  subsequent  declarations  and  actions,  refuse  to 
correct  his  error,  and  obstinately  persist  in  a  course  directly  opposed  to 
that  clearly  required  by  his  solemn  vow. 

Let  us  hear  the  opinion  of  a  man,  whose  penetration,  purity,  and  fidelity, 
■S.S  a  witness  for  God,  have  been  proclaimed  through  the   world  as  pre- 


27 

eminently  deserving  universal  confidence.  "  But,  for  men,  at  their  en- 
trance onthesacred  office  solemnly  to  subscribe  to  the  truth  of  what,  all  their 
lives  after,  they  strive  to  undermine  and  destroy,  is  at  once  so  crimmal  and 
absurd,  that  no  reproof  given  to  it  can  possibly  exceed  in  point  of  seve- 
rity. This  is  so  direct  a  violation  of  sincerity,  that  it  is  astonishing  to 
think  how  men  can  set  their  minds  at  ease  in  the  prospect,  or  keep  them  in 
peace  after  the  deliberate  commission  of  it.  The  very  excuses  and  eva- 
sions that  are  offered  in  defence  of  it  are  a  disgrace  to  reason  as  well  as  a 
scandal  to  religion.  What  success  can  be  expected  from  that  man's  mi- 
nistry who  begins  it  with  an  act  of  so  complicated  guilt  1  How  can  he 
take  upon  him  to  reprove  others  for  sin,  or  to  train  them  up  in  virtue  and 
true  goodness,  while  himself  is  chargeable  with  direct  premeditated  and 
perpetual  perjury !"  * 

Falsehood  has  been  properly  defined  to  consist  in  "That  which  de- 
ceives and  disappoints  confidence."  Perjury  is  of  the  same  general 
nature,  but  inconceivably  aggravated  in  guilt  by  a  direct  appeal  to  God, 
which  involves  an  imprecation  of  his  judgments  upon  any  thing  deceptive 
in  the  engagement  made,  fraudulent  or  unfaithful  in  the  execution  of  it. 
These  characteristics  will  be  found,  on  close  mspection,  applicable  to  the 
case  before  us.  From  his  own  testimony  and  attending  circumstances, 
it  cannot  be  doubted  that  Mr.  B.  deceived  the  Presbytery  of  N.  Bruns- 
wick at  his  licensure ;  and  it  is  equally  clear  that  he  has  disappointed 
their  expectations.  The  points  of  greatest  importance,  in  the  obligations 
assumed,  on  entering  the  sacred  office,  are  embraced  in  the  following 
questions  : — "  Do  you  sincerely  receive  and  adopt  the  Confession  of 
Failh  of  this  Church,  as  containing  the  system  of  doctrines  taught  in 
the  Holy  Scriptures  1  Do  you  promise  to  study  the  peace,  unity,  and 
purity  of  the  Church  ?"  In  all  sound  Prpsbyteries  these  obligations  have 
been  uniformly  understood  to  imply  the  utmost  singleness  and  sincerity 
of  purpose,  required  also  by  act  of  the  General  Assembly — "  In  receiv- 
ing and  adopting  the  formularies  of  the  Church,  according  to  the  obvious, 
known,  and  established  meaning  of  the  terms,  as  the  Confession  of 
their  Faith."  Our  Confession  itself  demands  the  engagement  to  be 
taken  "in  the  plain  and  common  sense  of  the  words,  without  equivoca- 
tion or  mental  reservation."  The  Presbytery  of  N,  Brunswick  have 
always  acted  in  conformity  with  these  views;  the  students  of  the  Semi- 
nary, who  are  generally  witnesses  of  their  transactions,  and  especially 
those  on  trial  before  them,  could  not  fail  to  be  impressed  with  this  fact — 
that  Presbytery  never  conceived  the  thought  that  any  candidate  had  pre- 
sumed to  stand  before  them  with  any  other  view ;  in  the  act  of  licensing 
Mr.  B.,  as  there  was  no  scruple  stated,  they  supposed  him  to  be  honestly 
receiving  and  ad  )pting  the  Book,  in  its  known  and  established  import, 
as  the  Confession  of  his  Faith.  Reposing  this  confidence  in  his  sup- 
posed sincerity,  they  committed  to  him  the  momentous  trust  of  jireaching 
this  faith  to  dying  men.  With  astonishment  we  now  learn  from  Mr.  B. 
himself,  that  he  assumed  the  prescribed  obligations  and  trust,  cherishing, 
secretly,  reserves,  evasions,  and  designs,  in  direct  conflict  with  what  the 

*  Wilherspoon's  vvoilvs,  vol,  3.  p.  197. 


28 

Presbytery  and  the  Church  at  large  understand  that  solemn  promise  to 
import ;  indeed,  entirely  overlooking  and  renouncing  the  Confession  of 
Faith,  both  in  letter  and  in  practical  effect.  "  'J  he  system  of  doctrines 
contained  in  the  standards  I  received  as  a  system.  1  received  it,  not  in- 
deed ever  expressing  my  assent  to  every  expression  and  lorm  of  expres- 
sion ;  but  as  reserving  to  myself  the  rigid  of  examining  the  language, 
and  forming  an  opinion  of  its  meaning."  Language  more  explicit,  testi- 
mony more  unequivocal  and  irresistible,  to  prove  the  high  immorality  of 
Mr.  B.'s  conduct  in  this  sacred  transaction,  need  not,  could  not,  exist. 

The  corrupt  and  dangerous  practice  of  signing  Creeds  and  Confes- 
sions,/or*  doctrine  and  for  substance,  with  reserved  rights  of  construction 
and  explanation,  which  the  honest  friends  of  truth  regard  with  abhorrence, 
is  here  practically  introduced,  boldly  avowed,  audaciously  held  up  as  an 
example  in  the  Church,  and  pleaded  as  an  apology  for  this  unparalleled 
violation  of  moral  honesty.  A  most  pertinacious  adherence  to  this  de- 
ceptive course  is  here  fully  evinced.  "I  have  not  changed  my  views 
materially  since  I  was  licensed  to  preach  the  gospel."  Again,  he  de- 
clares, that  "  He  held  the  views  expressed  in  these  Notes  at  the  time  of 
his  licensure  and  ordination,  that  he  has  held  and  preached  them  ten 
years.''^  Again:  he  avows  "  His  intention  not  to  be  influenced  by  re- 
gard to  any  Creed  or  Confession  of  Faith  :  —because  it  is  his  deliberate 
and  settled  purpose  of  mind  ;  the  principle  by  which  he  expects  always 
to  be  governed."  This  dogmatical,  reiterated,  deliberate,  and  determined 
rejection  of  our  Confession,  in  the  very  act  in  which  he  pledged  his 
sacred  truth  and  honor,  before  God,  to  adopt  and  maintain  it,  must  pro- 
duce through  our  Church  indescribable  emotions. 

False  speaking  and  false  swearing  are  justly  held  up  for  public  execra- 
tion by  all  men.  Perjury,  even  where  money,  office,  or  honor,  is  its 
object,  and  where  its  injurious  effects  are  comparatively  trivial,  is  exposed 
to  punishment  by  fine  or  imprisonment.  But  what  man  or  angel  can 
calculate  the  guilt  of  treachery  in  an  ambassador  of  Christ !  It  may  be 
estimated  in  some  small  measure  by  considering  the  extent  of  a  minis- 
ter's obligations  to  God,  to  the  Presbytery,  to  the  Church,  and  to  the 
souls  of  men.  As  these  obligations  are  manifold  and  weighty,  a  violation 
of  them  must  incur  complicate  and  awful  guilt.  It  is  a  most  aggravating 
circumstance  in  Mr.  B.'s  course,  that  he  is  persisting,  against  the  warn- 
ings and  entreaties  of  years  past,  and  pursuing  an  object  of  the  greatest 
enormity — the  perversion  of  the  truth  of  God  and  the  ruin  of  his 
Church. 

If  this  dishonest  system  should  be  sustained,  and  become  the  law  of 
the  Church,  it  is  evident  that  every  licensure  and  ordination  iri  our  land 
may  become  an  inlet  to  some  new  form  or  grade  of  heresy,  under  the 
impenetrable  and  imposing  guise  of  reserves  and  explanations.  It  surely 
needs  no  words  to  show  how  well  adapted  Mr.  B.'s  model  will  be,  to  lead 
candidates  of  his  non-committal  and  inventive  cast,  completely  to  evade 
every  constitutional  guard  against  error,  and  to  import  into  the  Church 
every  abomination.  Hitherto  it  has  been  considered  the  duty  of  candi- 
dates, before  admission,  after  or  during  a  thorough  course  of  theological 
reading,  to  inspect  our  Book  of  Faith,  ponder  its  sacred  Contents,  and 


29 

decide  upon  their  character ;  that  they  may  act  intelligently  and  sin- 
cerely, if  at  all,  in  assuming  its  obligations  and  avowing  its  principles  ; 
but  a  new  method  of  procedure  is  now  exhibited — to  swear  to  the  Book 
first  as  a  Confession  of  Faith,  and  examine  its  language  afterwards  to 
form  an  opinion  of  its  meaning  ! 

It  is  now  a  very  serious  inquiry  in  what  light  the  advocates  of  Mr.  B. 
are  to  be  viewed.  Possessing,  we  have  no  doubt,  much  more  accurate 
knowledge  on  this  point  than  we  can  claim,  his  assertion  is  not  to  be  pass- 
ed lightly  over  "  that  he  holds  the  opinions  here  in  question,  in  common 
with  no  small  part  of  the  more  than  two  thousand  ministers  in  our  con- 
nexion." This  appears  to  us  unquestionable — that,  if  they  entered  our 
Church  with  any  other  view  than  that  of  honest  compliance  with  the  spirit 
of  their  ordination  vow  and  strict  conformity  to  the  letter  of  our  Church 
standards,  they  committed  a  profane  and  criminal  violation  of  the  most  so- 
lemn oath  ever  administered  to  man  ; — and  if  they  continue  in  our  Church, 
as  Mr.  B.  does,  in  open  conflict  with  the  pledge  they  gave  and  the  stand- 
ards they  voluntarily  assumed,  their  public  ministry  and  their  whole  life  is  a 
constant  repetition  and  aggravation  of  the  most  criminal  act  ever  perpetrat- 
ed in  this  world.  And  whatever  may  have  been  at  first  their  principle  of 
action  and  mode  of  introduction,  their  vindicating  a  man  who  not  only 
holds  heretical  opinions,  corrupting  to  the  Church  of  Christ,  but  assumes 
and  exercises  rights  directly  subversive  of  that  branch  of  his  Church  which 
they  have  sworn  to  protect  and  advance,  they  are  undoubtedly  to  be  con- 
sidered abettors  of  heresy — instigators  and  promoters  of  consummate 
mischief  to  Zion,  and  are  justly  held  accountable  to  God  and  to  his 
Church  for  all  the  corruption  and  confusion  produced  by  their  unfaithful 
course. 

To  the  great  body  of  candid  and  reflecting  men  of  all  denominations, 
the  wonder  constantly  is — why  Mr.  B.  and  those  of  his  class,  most 
manifestly  and  radically  differing  from  the  standards  of  the  Presbyterian 
Church,  pertinaciously  pursuing  measures  which  produce  incessant  dis- 
cord— which  rend  congregations,  church  judicatories,  missionary  societies, 
benevolent  institutions — which  subject  large  sections  of  our  Church  and 
country  to  painful  conflicts,  keep  the  public  mind  unceasingly  agitated 
with  feuds  and  animosities : — the  wonder  is — why  they  should  wish  to 
remain  for  an  hour  in  connexion  with  this  Church.  It  is  perfectly  plain,  that 
if  their  uncandid,  inconsistent,  and  offensive  action  and  influence  were 
removed  from  the  Presbyterian  body,  all  would  be  peaceful,  prosperous, 
and  happy,  within  her  bosom.  No  difficulty,  no  evils  of  any  magnitude, 
have  afflicted  the  Church  for  many  years  not  justly  ascribable  to  the 
influence  of  New  England  men,  N.  S.  principles,  and  sympathies  for 
them.  How  preposterous  and  how  criminal  is  it  for  men  to  insist  on 
wearing  the  name  of  Presbyterians,  when  their  hearts  are  opposed  to 
Presbyterianism,  at  enmity  with  its  peculiar  and  essential  doctrines  and 
forms  !  Why  do  they  not  retire  from  the  Presbyterian  Church  and  erect 
an  independent  standard,  where  they  can  enjoy,  unmolested  and  without 
giving  offence,  the  anomalies  they  so  much  covet — without  cherishing 
wiles  and  creating  conflicts,  perpetual  in  their  character,  painful  to  all, 
wounding  to  the  Church,  offensive  to  God,  chilling  to  devotion,  and 


30 

paralysing  to  the  noblest  energies  and  interests  of  Zion  ?  If  they  have 
no  regard  for  truth  and  consistency— uo  concern  for  the  comfort  of  the 
great  body  of  ministers,  and  elders,  and  people,  whom  thty  continually 
disturb  and  pain — for  the  sake  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  loves, 
inculcates,  and  enjoins  peace,  let  them  and  their  adherents  withdraw,  that 
the  land  may  have  rest  and  Zion  throw  off  her  sackcloth.  The  land  is 
wide  enough  for  them  and  for  us.  They  have  congregations,  schools, 
colleges,  seminaries,  societies  of  every  name,  sufficient  to  make  them 
respectable  in  numbers  and  strength.  Thus  separated  by  a  voluntary  and 
amicable  recession  from  a  Church  into  which  they  have  dishonestly 
intruded  and  continued,  only  to  weaken  and  destroy  it ;  whose  interests 
they  never  intended  to  promote  ;  and  whose  honest  and  faithful  members 
never  can  and  never  will  unresistingly  tolerate  their  wicked  abuse  of  her 
institutions,  and  corruption  of  her  faith  and  purity — thus  separated,  the 
fruits  of  the  Spirit  may  again  be  hailed  among  us  ;  and  they  may,  with 
some  appearance  of  consistency  and  honour,  escape  from  the  guilt  and 
obloquy,  which  in  this  connexion  must  for  ever  accumulate  and  rest  upon 
them. 

If  the  hope  of  plunder  keeps  them  back  from  separation,  the  only 
honourable  escape  from  their  present  ignominious  and  self-condemned 
position — let  me  tell  them  that  such  a  hope  is  desperate.  No  ;  let  not  this 
detain  them.  The  adjudications  of  the  highest  tribunals,  both  of  Europe 
and  America,  have  recently  confirmed  the  dictates  of  common  sense  and 
sound  equity,  by  repeated  declarations — that  the  faith  of  a  church  consti- 
tutes her  bemg,  decides  her  character,  establishes  her  rights,  and  secures 
her  property.  The  apostacy  of  the  N.  School  from  the  Confession  of 
Faith  is  now  as  clearly  ascertained  as  it  can  be,  both  by  their  language 
and  their  actions.  Their  heresy  has  gone  abroad,  written  as  with  sun- 
beams, to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  The  stand  taken  and  the  course  pur- 
sued by  the  minority  in  the  Assembly  of  1834,  were  designed  to  produce 
this  result.  Subsequent  events  have  completed  the  development — a 
development  which  cannot  fail  to  prove  an  impregnable  panoply  for  the 
uncorrupted  Church,  against  any  and  every  assault  of  art  or  of  violence 
which  the  great  King  of  Zion  may  permit.  The  prospect  of  additional 
"  loaves  and  fishes,"  from  the  orthodox  body,  by  any  other  process  than 
insidious  and  meddlesome  gleaning,  is  too  dubious  to  recompense  the 
sacrifice  of  public  good,  and  of  individual  character,  consequent  upon  a 
farther  continuance  in  this  uncongenial  connexion,  and  prosecution  of 
measures  so  productive  of  bitterness — so  disgraceful  to  reason — and  so 
scandalous  to  the  Christian  name. 

From  such  instances  of  insincerity  and  immorality  in  the  tninisters  of 
religion,  a  withering  effect  must  be  expected  to  descend  upon  the  pious 
affections  of  the  great  body  of  Christian  people,  who  are  themselves  as- 
tonished and  mourning  spectators  of  this  solemn  mockery,  this  affecting 
insensibility  to  crime  and  guilt,  in  those  who  at  the  altar,  and  who  should, 
by  lives  of  simplicity  and  Godly  sincerity,  lead  the  way  to  heaven.  Need 
we  inquire  why  religion  languishes  and  the  ways  of  Zion  mourn  1  Can  we 
be  at  a  loss  to  understand  why  the  Most  High  has  withdrawn  his  blessed 
spirit  from  his  Church  below  1     Can  we  reasonably  expect  in  general 


31 

through  the  Church,  those  seasons  of  genuine  awakening  and  revival, 
which  have  happily  distinguished  former  days,  while  the  truth  of  God  is 
corruptly  preached  ;  while  Christ  and  his  righteousness  are  ope7ily  made 
light  of;  and  the  essential  principles  of  his  Gospel  contravened  ;  while 
there  is  visible,  under  so  many  symptoms  of  favour,  a  combined  movement 
in  the  citadel  of  the  Church  to  screen  the  propagators  of  heresy,  insulting 
to  heaven  and  damning  to  souls  1  Indeed,  should  not  the  cold  inaction  of 
many  true  friends  of  Gospel  truth,  the  indecision  of  others,  and  the  tardiness 
with  which  many  advance  to  the  help  of  the  Lord,  be  considered  deeply 
offensive  in  his  holy  sight ;  sufficient  to  bring  down  the  rebuke  of  a  frigid 
winter  or  a  dreary  night  upon  regions  recently  rejoicing  in  the  sunshine  of 
spiritual  day  1  Besides — have  not  the  intestine  wars  and  confusions  en- 
kindled by  the  invaders  of  our  peaceful  Church  struck  alarm  through  all 
our  borders,  and  driven  many  faithful  laborers  from  the  direct  care  of  souls 
and  dissemination  of  truth,  to  the  painful  work  of  defence  against  troops 
of  ambushed  and  of  open  foes? 

It  is  an  inquiry,  also,  of  absorbing  interest,  what  is  to  be  the  influence 
of  this  public  profanation  of  oaths  by  the  professed  ministers  of  Jesus 
Christ,  on  the  morals  of  society  in  general.  We  apprehend  the  most 
deleterious  effects.  That  the  continuance  of  this  system  of  equivocation 
and  subterfuge,  in  a  matter  so  sacred,  will  operate  with  a  paralysing  in- 
fluence on  the  moral  perceptions  and  sensibilities  of  the  perpetrators 
themselves,  is  too  clear  to  be  doubted.  Indeed,  we  are  much  mistaken, 
in  a  matter,  too,  where  we  would  gladly  find  ourselves  in  error,  if  practi- 
cal indications  of  a  decisive  and  alarming  character  have  not  already 
been  given,  in  many  instances,  of  the  deplorable  truth  of  these  apprehen- 
sions. The  Argus  eyes  of  the  unholy  multitude  are  ever  placed  with  in- 
vidious scrutiny  on  the  vestments  of  the  holy  order.  A  spot  discovered 
in  their  lawn  will  produce  a  shout  of  unhallowed  satisfaction  through  all 
the  camp  of  the  enemy.  And  though  it  is  hard  to  induce  any  of  their 
company  to  follow  a  step  in  the  progress  of  holy  virtue,  yet  the  slight- 
est signal  will  prompt  a  host  to  triumphant  emulation  in  the  career  of 
profligacy  and  guilt.  In  vain  shall  we  deplore  the  general  relaxation  of 
public  morals,  reprove  the  general  violation  of  truth  and  profanation  of 
oaths,  and  the  light  esteem  of  every  thing  sacred,  among  the  common 
orders,  while  so  large  a  number  of  the  consecrated  teachers  and  defend- 
ers of  pure  morality,  by  violating  their  most  sacred  engagements,  and 
leagueing  together  to  screen  transgressors,  enable  the  multitude,  with  just 
reproach  and  biting  sarcasm,  to  retort — "  Thou  that  teachest  another, 
teachest  thou  not  thyself?  Thou  that  abhorrest  idols,  dost  thou  commit 
sacrilege  ?  Thou  that  makest  thy  boast  of  the  law,  through  breaking  the 
law  dishonorest  thou  God  1  Rom.  xvi.  21 — 23. 

Thus  have  I,  with  all  the  honesty  and  candor  I  possess,  laid  open  my 
heart  on  this  very  interesting  and  impressive  subject.  Before  concluding, 
it  seems  proper  to  state  one  fact, — that  no  man,  or  body  of  men,  has  had 
any  thing  to  do  with  the  preparation  of  this  statement,  or  is  in  any  de- 
gree responsible  for  any  thing  it  contains  save  the  writer  alone.  The 
subscriber,  moreover,  solemnly  declares,  that  while  he  exposes  and  re-' 
proves  Mr.  B.  publicly  and  seriously,  he  is  unconscious  of  possessing  a 


32 

single  feeling  of  unkindness  towards  him.  Nay ;  that  he  would  gladly 
embrace  him,  freed  from  the  snares  mto  which  he  has  fallen,  with  all  the 
affections  of  his  heart.  If  Mr.  B.  is  dissatisfied  with  what  is  here  slated 
in  regard  to  the  mind  of  the  Presbytery  of  New  Brunswick  on  the  subject 
of  licensing  candidates,  he  can  apply  to  them  for  an  expression  of  opinion. 
The  writer  would  be  exceedingly  unwilling  to  offer  so  great  an  offence  to 
the  understanding  and  moral  sense  of  that  Presbytery  as  such  an  applica- 
tion would  imply. 

A  season  of  infidelity  and  darkness  is  lowering  over  us.  The  reli- 
gious aspect  of  our  Church  is  now  fast  putting  on  the  sombre  shades 
predicted  more  than  twenty-five  years  ago,  when  German  Rationalism 
and  Neology  first  began  to  develope  their  seducing  power  in  New  Eng- 
land. Error,  like  truth,  is  systematic.  One  false  principle  leads  to 
another.  A  denial  of  original  sin,  as  taught  in  the  Bible,  will  certainly 
produce  erroneous  sentiments  in  regard  to  man  as  a  moral  agent — mis- 
taken conceptions  of  the  character  of  Christ  and  his  work  of  atonement 
— distorted  views  of  the  moral  government  of  God,  and  the  work  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  on  the  sinner's  heart.  Whoever  doubts  or  errs  in  regard 
to  one  fundamental  point  in  the  evangelic  scheme,  will  be  led  to  attempt, 
by  presumptuous  and  false  speculations,  the  adjustment  of  every  other 
principle  to  his  mistaken  view,  and  will  be  very  likely  to  unhinge  the 
whole  economy  of  grace.  Mr.  Barnes  is,  beyond  a  doubt,  far  advanced 
in  this  fatal  course.  What  are  his  own  practical  views  and  experience 
as  a  Christian,  God  knows.  But  his  principles  are  subversive  of  the 
whole  gospel  plan.  He  may,  by  explanations  and  refinements  of  art, 
persuade  himself  that  he  is  not  in  radical  error;  but  he  can  never  satisfy 
others  of  this  fact  without  a  total  change,  in  thought  and  word,  on  the 
points  at  an  issue.  They  who  read  his  Notes,  especially  the  young  in 
Sabbath  schools  and  Bible  classes,  can  scarcely  fail  to  be  mortally  in- 
fected by  them.  And  many,  embracing  his  principles  and  reasoning 
from  them  in  their  several  relations  and  bearings,  will  almost  necessarily 
arrive  at  broad  infidelity.  In  truth,  if  Mr.  B's  opinions,  as  I  understand 
them,  and  as  they  are  understood  by  readers  in  general,  be  correct,  I 
must  pronounce  the  Bible  throughout  of  little  value,  except  as  a  pure  and 
well-attested  code  of  morals.  And  this  is  the  comprehensive  tenet  of 
the  Unitarians — the  sum  of  the  religious  faith. 

This  moment,  more  imperiously  than  any  preceding,  summons  the 
friends  of  religion,  morality,  and  order  in  our  Church,  to  awake,  and  most 
vigorously  strive  for  the  preservation  of  all  that  is  dear  in  our  ancient  and 
venerable  ecclesiastical  system.  That  the  enemy  have  come  in  like  a 
flood,  none  can  doubt;  that  their  designs  are  revolutionary,  if  not  exter- 
minating, can  as  little  he  denied  ;  that  their  movements  can  be  resisted 
only  by  the  combined  strength  of  the  true  and  faitful  lijting  up  the  stand- 
ard of  the  Lord  against  them,  is  equally  clear.  Let  our  action  be  rendered 
formidable  and  efficient,  not  by  bitterness,  noise,  and  contention.  May 
our  first  resort  be  to  God  in  faith  and  supplication :  our  next,  reliance 
upon  firmness  and  diligence  in  duty.  Let  our  instruments  be  enlightened 
reason — earnest  expostulation — the  faithfijl  maintenance  of  law  in  consti- 
tutional process. 


33 

To  the  commissioned  leaders  in  the  armies  of  Israel  we  need  not  say- 
be  faithful.  To  the  elders  of  the  Churches,  divinely  characterized  as  helps 
and  governments,  we  would  address  an  importunate  call  to  come  forth  with 
promptness  and  energy  in  the  discharge  of  your  momentous  trust.  You 
are,  pre-eminently,  the  representatives  of  the  people ;  the  trustees  and 
guardians  of  the  faith  — the  purity — the  privileges — the  rights  of  "  the  great 
congregation"  of  Christ  Jesus  in  this  world.  Pastors  may  prove  corrupt 
— become  unfaithJul,  or  pass  away  ;  elders  remain  amalgamated  with  the 
flock,  bound  to  them  by  dearest  ties,  entrusted  with  the  care  of  the  lambs, 
the  hope  of  Christ's  kingdom.  The  glory  of  God,  the  prosperity  of  his 
Church,  th«  fidelity  of  his  under-shepherds,  the  safety  of  the  flock,  and 
the  salvation  of  them  that  are  xoithoul,  depend  much  upon  your  wisdom, 
zeal,  and  stability.  Many  are  the  wiles  of  the  adversary  :  "  Wherefore, 
take  unto  you  the  whole  armor  of  God,  that  ye  may  be  able  to  withstand 
in  the  evil  day,  and,  having  done  all,  to  stand .'" 

A  Son  of  the  Huguenots. 
March,  1836. 


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